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JULY.  1922 


MENTAL    D'^^^ERENCES   IN   CERTAIN 
Vm     '"ANT  GROUPS 

Psychological  Tects  of  South  Europeans  in  Typical 

Caliorr/,*  Schools  with  Bearing  on  the 

31u'^c'.c'' nal  Policy  ^.716   on  the 

r:-:>blems  of  Racial         .  /:ts 

in  This  Country 


BY 

KIMBALL  YOUNG 

UNIVEBSITY  OF  OREGON 


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MENTAL   DIFFERENCES   IN    CERTAIN 
<r         IMMIGRANT  GROUPS 

Psychological  Tests  of  South  Europeans  in  Typical 

California  Schools  with  Bearing  on  the 

Educational   Policy  and   on   the 

Problems  of  Racial  Contacts 

in  This  Country 


BY 

KIMBALL  YOUNG.- 

UNIVERSITY  OP  OREGON 


Published  by  the  University 
University  Press 

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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Page 

Chapteb      I.    Plan  and  I*xjepose  of  This  Study   3 

Nature  of  General  Intelligence   4 

Inheritance  of  Mental  Traits    6 

Chapter    II.    Methods  and  Materials  9 

Selection  of  Sample  9 

Selection  of  Psychological  Tests    10 

Outside   Criteria    10 

Administration  of  Tests,  etc 11 

Materials    11 

Chaptek  III.    Treatment  or  Results   16 

Preliminary  Survey    16 

Measures  of  Averages,  Dispersion  and  Overlapping    ....  21 

Correlations    48 

Interpretations  and  Discussions  of  Data  57 

Chapteb   IV,    The  Application  of  the  Data  to  the  Problems  65 

Modification  of  School  Policy,  etc 65 

Bearing    of    Findings    on    Bacial    Mental    Differences 

and  Immigration    72 

Chapter     V.    Theoretical   Implications:     Race   Differences   and 

Culture   85 

-'  -* 

Chapter   VI.    General  Summary  and  Conclusions 94 

Bibliography    99 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


The  writer  wishes  to  express  his  appreciation  for  help  and  advice  in 
preparation  of  this  monograph  to  the  following:  First  of  all,  to  Professors 
E.  P.  Cubberley  and  L.  M.  Terman,  under  whom  the  work  was  undertaken, 
and  then  to  Drs.  P.  E.  Davidson  and  J.  E.  Coover  and  to  Miss  G.  M.  Trace. 
He  is  under  deep  obligation  to  the  large  number  of  school  principals  and 
teachers  who  so  heartily  co-operated  in  rating  the  children  and  in  making 
the  investigation  possible.  He  cannot,  as  he  should  like,  mention  all  here, 
but  the  following  especially  should  be  named:  Superintendent  Alex  Sheriffs 
and  Principals  J.  E.  Hancock,  Nell  O  'Brien,  of  San  Jose,  and  Principals  Ray 
of  Santa  Clara,  Smith  of  Sunnyvale,  Adams  of  South  San  Francisco,  and  the 
principals  of  Milpitas  and  Half  Moon. 

Not  least  of  all  the  writer  is  deeply  indebted  to  Magdalene  Anderson 
Young  for  her  great  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  the  thesis  and  her 
constant  encouragement  throughout. 


[2] 


MENTAL   DIFFERENCES    IN   CERTAIN 
IMMIGRANT  GROUPS 


CHAPTER  I.  PLAN  AND  PURPOSE  OF  THIS  STUDY 

The  so-called  "New  Immigration"  which  has  deluged  this 
country  in  the  past  thirty  or  forty  years  has  resulted  in  many 
problems — social,  economic,  racial  and  educational.  Only  lately 
has  serious  attention  been  paid  to  the  last  two :  in  reference  to 
the  first  the  consequences  of  racial  mixture  of  the  older  and  newer 
stocks,  and  in  regard  to  the  second,  the  problem  of  providing  the 
children  of  foreign  stock  and  adult  immigrants  with  an  education 
commensurate  with  modern  needs  and  along  the  lines  laid  down 
in  our  national  culture.  The  educational  difficulties  have  been 
reflected  in  great  retardation  and  in  great  burden  of  teaching  the 
foreign  children  the  content  of  our  curricula. 

The  incentive  to  this  study  grew  out  of  an  attempt  to  discover 
if  possible  some  of  the  causes  of  the  difficulty  in  the  education  of 
children  of  South  European  ancestry  in  our  public  schools  and 
further  to  see  if  a  study  of  these  children  of  immigrants  might 
not  throw  some  light  on  the  larger  question  of  adult  immigration. 
The  purposes  of  this  research  are:  (1)  To  investigate  by  psycho- 
logical tests  and  other  measures  the  mental  capacity  of  the  South 
Italian,  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexican  children  in  certain  pub- 
lic schools,  to  discover  whether  their  inability  to  master  the  tradi- 
tional American  education  is  due:  (a)  to  their  alleged  language 
handicap,  or  (b)  to  the  lack  of  native  mental  endowment  (as  com- 
pared to  that  of  "American"  children  of  North  European  an- 
cestry) which  prevents  their  acquisition  of  the  content  of  our 
curricula.  (2)  From  the  results  of  the  study  of  the  school  popu- 
lation to  note  the  possible  implication  of  the  findings  for  the  larger 
problem  of  immigration  and  the  future  race  mixture  in  this 
country.' 

The  results  will  be  treated  in  a  comparative  way  in  order  to 

•  Race  will  be  used  in  this  monograph  in  the  semi-popular  sense.  Cf.  Reuter  (89) 
and  Retzius  (88).  Technically  in  speaking  of  Europeans  we  should  employ  the  term 
"sub-race."  "Race"  as  used  here  has  a  common  sanction  in  much  sociological  and 
psychological  writing.  The  term  "American"  will  be  used  to  refer  to  the  children  of 
North  European  ancestry.  "Latin"  will  be  used  when  speaking  of  the  South  Italians, 
Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexicans  as  a  group.  "Non-Latin"  will  occasionally  be  used 
to  designate  the  children  of  North  European  background  in  contrast  to  the  South 
Europeans  and  to  avoid  stereotyped  expression. 

[3] 


573998 


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»         »    •      r 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

bring  out  the  differences  in  the  native  ability  and  performance  of 
the  various  groups. 

Variation  in  given  traits  in  a  group  of  individuals  has  long 
been  recognized  in  biology.  Variability  in  human  height,  weight, 
cephalic  index  and  other  strictly  physical  features  is  readily  ad- 
mitted. More  recently  has  arisen  the  idea  that  in  men  and  women 
mental  traits  vary  considerably  around  an  "average"  and  that 
further  the  dispersion  in  mental  traits  as  well  as  the  averages 
differ  in  different  groups,  classes  and  possibly  races.  The  preju- 
dices against  measuring  the  "mind"  are  disappearing.  It  seems 
to  the  writer  that  mental  measurement  has  come  to  stay  and  that 
the  application  of  mental  tests  is  apt  to  be  increased  rather  than 
lessened.  Certainly  no  one  in  the  field  of  testing  is  ignorant  of 
the  long  way  yet  to  be  covered  before  the  desirable  accuracy  is 
obtained.  The  methods  of  measuring  general  intelligence  of 
groups  have  proved  their  practical  worth  through  their  use  in 
schools,  in  the  recent  draft  army,  in  industry,  in  mental  pathology 
and  elsewhere. 

The  writer  accepts,  with  reservations  as  to  perfection  and 
complete  applicability,  however,  the  use  of  tests  of  general  intelli- 
gence as  valid  for  studying  the  native  mental  endowment  of  a 
school  population.  It  must,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
specific  groups  which  were  tested  in  this  study  are  from  one  sec- 
tion of  the  country  only.  This  study  is  not  one  of  a  complete 
racial  group.  The  particular  sample  is  typical  of  like  groups  in 
other  parts  of  the  United  States  so  far  as  may  be  determined. 

Further,  at  the  outset,  the  writer  accepts  as  valid  two  concepts 
of  modern  biology  and  psychology:  (1)  that  of  general  intelli- 
gence; (2)  that  mental  traits  are  in  very  considerable  measure 
transmitted  by  the  mechanisms  of  heredity,  and  hence  exist  relor- 
tively  independent  of  the  effects  of  environment.  It  it  not  the 
purpose  at  this  point  to  go  extensively  into  the  theory  of  general 
intelligence  or  to  review  the  literature  on  mental  inheritance  and 
discuss  the  problem  of  heredity  versus  environment.  Neverthe- 
less, for  perspective,  brief  mention  will  be  made  in  the  following 
paragraphs  of  these  two  assumptions. 

A.  The  Nature  of  General  Intelligence.* 

There  exists  in  the  human  organism  a  general  inherent  capacity 
or   potentiality   for  adjustment   to   the   environment.     Ultimately 

=  Cf.  for  general  treatises  Binet  and  Simon  (8),  Terman  (110,  111,  113),  Godd&rd 
(45,  46),  also  the  Symposium  on  Intelligence  (108),  Henmon  (50),  Kohs  (61),  Doll  (32), 
Stockton    (102),   Mitchell  and  Ruger    (74). 

[4] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

successful  life  will  be  in  terms  of  adequate  or  inadequate  possession 
of  such  potentiality.  This  potentiality  is  not  an  instinct,  but  may 
be  thought  of  as  a  sum  total  of  more  or  less  non-specific  possibil- 
ities for  the  development  of  behavior  patterns.  The  actual  de- 
velopment of  these  behavior  patterns,  however,  depends  on  the 
type  of  contacts  the  individual  makes  with  his  environment  as  he 
grows  up.  Although  the  specific  content  and  meaning  in  human 
minds  varies,  the  kind  of  adjustment  "crises"  met  by  any  person 
or  group  of  persons  is  much  the  same,  and,  by  and  large,  the 
organization  of  the  human  mind  may  be  considered  fairly  common 
everywhere.  Yet  in  terms  of  advancement,  that  is  to  say,  increas- 
ingly efficient  adjustment,  comprising  the  rise  of  the  arts  and 
sciences  making  for  survival,  the  groups  containing  many  persons 
of  better  than  group-average  capacity  for  what  might  be  called 
projection  of  behavior  into  future  situations  are  bound  to  get 
ahead,  other  things  being  equal,  as  compared  to  a  group  comprising 
but  few  individuals  of  better  than  average  ability.  By  projection 
of  behavior  is  implied  such  factors  as :  free  imagery,  comprehen- 
sion, wider  meanings,  analyzing  and  synthetizing  ability,  symbolic 
thinking,  foresight,  interpretation.  A  combination  of  higher  than 
average  ability  and  wide  variability  in  one  group  than  in  a  second 
would  give  the  former  decided  advantage  over  the  latter,  provided 
the  cultural  opportunities  of  both  groups  were  similar. 

The  rapid  spread  of  cultural  advantages  through  education  and 
civilization  generally  is  making  it  possible  for  the  various  racial 
groups  to  possess  somewhat  identical  social  heredity.  Progress 
lies  with  those  groups  who  have  the  stronger  potential  power  for 
using  and  enhancing  this.     As  Terman  puts  it  (112,  p.  128)  : 

It  cannot  be  disputed,  however,  that  in  the  long  run  it  is  the  races 
which  excel  in  abstract  thinking  that  eat  while  others  starve,  survive  epi- 
demics, master  new  continents,  conquer  time  and  space,  and  substitute 
religion  for  magic,  science  for  taboos  and  justice  for  revenge.  .  .  .  Any 
given  society  is  ruled,  led,  or  at  least  molded  by  the  five  or  ten  per  cent 
of  its  members  whose  behavior  is  governed  by  ideas. 

While  the  formal  definitions  of  general  intelligence  have  varied 
among  themselves,  the  disagreements  have  usually  been  purely  on 
emphasis  rather  than  on  essentials.  Thorndike  (122)  has  held 
for  a  mutliple  or  non-focal  notion  of  intelligence  while  others  have 
held  to  a  unifocal  or  common  factor  belief.  One  feature  of  Thorn- 
dike's  point  of  view  has  bearing  upon  this  study.  He  has  main- 
tained that  there  are  at  least  two  types  of  ability :  one  which  is 
largely  mechanical  in  its  bent,  the  other  ideational.  Stockton  (102) 

[5] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

has  attacked  this  problem  of  two  types  of  intelligence  and  found 
that  there  does  seem  to  be  two  levels  of  behavior;  one  he  terms 
perceptual,  the  second,  conceptual.  He  shows  from  experimental 
results  that  those  pupils  who  perform  best  on  the  "conceptual" 
level  tend  to  do  poorly  on  the  "perceptual"  simply  because  they 
are  handicapped  in  dealing  with  the  concrete  tasks  of  the  latter, 
in  view  of  their  more  highly  integrated  imagery,  symbolic  images, 
wealth  of  associative  processes, — in  short  more  elaborate  "central 
processes. ' ' 

According  to  Stockton  the  notion  of  "kinds  of  intelligence" 
must  be  reduced  rather  to  the  more  satisfactory  concept  of  differ- 
ent degrees  in  the  organization  of  intelligence.  We  want  to  know 
how  effective  the  mental  processes  are  in  leading  to  successful 
adjustment.  These  processes  may  be  either  concrete,  perceptual 
organization  or  a  higher  integration  of  mind  in  terms  of  "symbolic 
thinking,"  use  of  language,  analysis  and  synthesis.  In  brief  it  is 
just  those  that  have  capacity  to  deal  with  problems  in  terms  of 
symbols  and  meanings,  of  comprehension  and  interpretation,  that 
have  on  the  whole  most  successfully  used  the  products  of  civiliza- 
tion and  have  gone  on  to  enhance  them.  In  modern  complex 
society  the  better  organized,  more  efficient  degree  of  intelligence 
is  especially  needed. 

B.  Inheritance  of  Mental  Traits. 

The  hereditary  aspect  of  this  problem  is  not  so  certain.  The 
bearing  of  the  inheritance  of  mental  traits  on  the  second  problem 
outlined  above  is  obvious.'  If  the  intelligence  of  the  incoming 
immigrant  should  prove  below  the  average  of  the  native  white 
American,  does  it  indicate  anything  concerning  the  distribution 
of  intelligence  in  the  next  generation  of  the  particular  immigrant 
stock?  If  on  the  other  hand,  intelligence  is  the  resultant  of  the 
forces  of  environment  acting  on  a  practically  common  heredity 
everjnvhere  in  society,  may  we  not  anticipate  a  change  in  the 
average  intelligence  of  the  second  generation  from  the  immigrant, 
and  in  view  of  good  surroundings — education,  uplift,  American- 
ization, and  industrial  "good  times" — an  increasing  shifting  in 
the  variability,  if  not  in  the  central  tendency  of  intelligence  toward 
higher  ability?     Now  it  must  be  admitted  at  once  that  our  knowl- 


'  If  there  is  nothing  to  mental  inheritance,  then  any  differences  in  mentality  revealed 
by  tests  of  foreign  children  would  apply  only  to  first  and  possibly  second  generation  of 
pupils  in  the  schools.  If  mental  heredity  be  a  fact,  then  our  results  may  have  profound 
significance   for  our   national   well-being — educational,    political,   and   cultural. 


[6] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

edge  of  the  inheritance  of  mental  traits  is  not  so  definite  as  we 
desire.  However,  careful  studies  of  the  matter  are  pushing  us  to 
the  conclusion  not  only  that  there  are  levels  of  general  intelligence 
in  the  population  but  that  these  are  fairly  constant,  at  least  much 
more  constant  from  generation  to  generation  than  we  have  been 
inclined  to  believe.  It  is  true  that  the  elimination  of  all  the  factors 
of  environment,  especially  the  effects  of  unfavorable  circumstances 
in  the  formative  years  of  life  which  may  bring  complexes,  and 
habits  that  later  opportunities  can  not  eliminate,  should  make 
us  cautious  of  too  wide  assumptions  on  the  question.  Still  the 
evidence  at  hand  on  the  effect  of  heredity  independent  of  environ- 
ment can  not  be  ignored. 

The  pioneer  work  of  Galton  (42)  and  DeCandoUe  (28)  on 
hereditary  genius  led  the  way  to  the  later  investigations.  Since 
Galton,  the  outstanding  contributions  have  come  from  Pearson* 
(78),  Ellis  (37),  Davenport  (26),  Woods  (136),  Goddard  (45), 
Starch  (101),  Thorndike  (119)  are  best  known.  A  phase  of  this 
matter  of  the  stability  of  intelligence  under  varying  environmental 
opportunities  is  of  interest.  Boas  arguing  for  the  slight  effect 
which  heredity  in  mental  traits  plays  in  racial  differences  as  con- 
trasted to  the  influence  of  environment  writes  (9,  p.  103)  : 

It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  psychology  that  the  repetition  of 
mental  processes  increases  the  facility  with  which  these  processes  are 
performed. 

If  Boas  is  arguing,  as  he  apparently  is,  that  practice  will  tend  , 
to  wipe  out  differences  in  performance  of  a  set  of  individuals  of 
same  age,  he  is  mistaken.  That  is,  mere  educational  and  cultural 
opportunities  will  not  eliminate  those  differences  in  individuals 
that  appear  to  be  innate.  Starch  cites  some  research  into  the 
relation  of  learning  in  school  subjects  to  intelligence,  showing  that 
the  relative  differences  in  persons  is  enhanced,  not  diminished, 
by  practice  (101,  p.  91)  : 

All  experimental  results  point  in  the  direction  that  practice  does  not 
equalize  abilities.  .  .  .  The  gifted  individuals  profit  more,  both  rela- 
tively and  absolutely,  than  the  less  gifted.  This  experimental  fact  is  one 
of  the  most  profound  bits  of  evidence  regarding  the  whole  problem  of 
heredity  and  environment. 

Conclusive  results  of  a  study  by  Ruch  (94)  on  this  very  prob- 
lem show  that  on  material  demanding  the  "higher  thought  pro- 
cesses" practice  reveals  increasing  wider  differences  in  the 
responses   of  three  groups   of  individuals :    poor,    medium,    and 


Cf:  Yule    (145)    for  criticism  of  certain  findingrs  of  Pearson. 

[7] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

superior  in  intelligence.  That  is,  the  advantage  is  all  to  the  favor 
7the  latter  two  groups  and  not  the  first,  and  --e-er  the  las 
group  does  not  only  absolutely  but  relatively  better  than  the 
Loml  even.  It  would  seem  then  that  Boas'  statement  must  be 
modlfled  to  take  into  account  the  effect  of  levels  of  mtelhgenee 
upon  the  increase  in  the  "facility"  of  handling  problems  demand- 

^"^  Wev^be  the  individual  nature  of  the  carriers  of  this  poten 
tiality  in  human  beings,  we  must  accept  the  facts  that  mtellectual 
traits  are  to  considerable  if  not  complete  degree  transmissible  by 
and  subsumable  to  the  laws  of  heredity.     One  need  not  nor  can 
not  conclude  with  certain  writers  that  the  matter  is  all  heredity 
and  nothing  else."    Neither  are  mental  differences  in  groups  and 
races  due  alone  to  adventitious  effects  of  environment.    The  evi- 
dence  is  strong  that  the  mixture  of  family  strains  of  weak  men- 
tality  affects  the  capacities  in  the  forthcoming  generations.    The 
same  laws  must  hold  for  the  crossing  of  family  strains  of  various 
raSal  or  sub-racial  strains.    We  may  justly  then  at  the  conclusion 
of  this  investigation  at  least  raise  the  implication  of  the  possible 
effect  of  racial  mixture  in  this  country  between  various  imraigrant 
stocks  as  we  actually  find  them  in  this  country.    This  is  truly  a 
supplementary  feature  to  the  monograph,  but  its  consequences  are 
large  and  the  writer  believes  he  is  justified  in  raising  the  issue. 

In  brief,  then,  there  are  two  assumptions  fundamental  to  our 
purpose:  the  first  regarding  general  intelligence  bears  upon  the 
experimental  method  and  the  interpretation  of  the  resulta  for 
educational  ends;  the  second  bears  by  implication,  at  l'»«  •  ^P°° 
the  interpretation  of  the  results  for  the  wider  problems  of  immi- 
gration, racial  mixture  and  future  cultural  progress. 


in  people  .nd  .t«mpt«d  to  .*«"'>'«. .'""i';"?  ,12})  held  the  view  that  environment  .nd 
the  belief,  in  m.n'.  .nnat.  ''"''"'-.k, ';fJ„l„V  in  mentality  of  jroup..  Cf:  al.o 
opportunity  account  for  mo«t  of  the  ™"f""f  '?  ,„„„ioritv  i>  dependent  on  envir- 
navies   (27),  whose  booli  attempt*  to  .how  that  menUI  ■uperioriiv  .carcely   hold 

?„m.rt.'    Hi.   "<r>'S'-^<' ^'"''};yr.S-''ni.Tu,%oTS"inlSSSc,  of  cultural   level 
with   Gallon  that  all  itenm.      will  «''«;^,„^hi.  u  to   igno 
and  ''run  of  attention."     Cf:  mjj™.  Chap.    \ ,. 


[8] 


CHAPTER  II.  METHODS  AND  MATERIALS 

A.  Selection  of  the  Sample. 

Since  the  problem  before  us  is  one  of  general  mental  ability  in 
racial  groups,  a  selection  of  children  by  age  rather  than  grade 
was  made.  There  is  no  need  of  defending  at  length  this  decision, 
which  though  in  little  use  in  educational  surveys,  is  based  upon 
good  statistical  principle.  To  take  an  age  group  and  test  all  the 
children  in  a  school  system  of  this  age  furnishes  a  better  sample 
from  which  to  work  in  comparing  groups  than  any  method  of 
selection  by  grade.  The  age  to  choose  was  a  problem,  but  after 
considering  the  availability  of  sample,  the  withdrawal  from  school 
of  children  after  13  or  14  years,  it  was  decided  to  select  all  children 
who  had  passed  their  twelfth  birthday  and  were  not  yet  thirteen. 
Moreover  this  group  did  not  include  many  who  had  entered  ado- 
lescence and  hence  the  difficulties  of  possible  emotional  instability 
were  removed.  Then,  too,  the  practical  cessation  of  immigration 
from  Europe  in  1914  meant  that  there  was  a  considerable  interim 
of  no-immigration  into  the  South  European  neighborhoods,  and 
hence  the  possible  likelihood  of  getting  twelve-year-olds  who  had 
but  recently  arrived  in  the  country  and  knew  no  English  did  not 
arise.  Moreover,  as  it  turned  out,  practically  all  the  cases  tested 
were  born  in  this  country.  Of  those  bom  abroad,  at  least  so  far 
as  the  South  Italians  are  concerned,  all  but  two  or  three  had  been 
in  the  United  States  over  five  years.  These  few  had  been  here  at 
least  three  years.  The  individual  records  of  these  cases  shows 
that  they  were  not  particularly  handicapped  by  the  language 
difficulty. 

TABLE  I.     BIRTHPLACE  OF  GROUPS'   (Percentages  born  in  countries  indicated) 

Race   Group  U.  S.  Italy      Portugal     Spain    Mexico    Hawaii 

American     (S.    J.)    99.5 

Italian    (S.    J.)    84.5  14.8 

Portuguese     88.5  3.8  7.7 

Spanish-Mexican      73.5  22.6  1.9 

Italian     (Miscellaneous)     86.0  14.0 

American     (Miscellaneous)     97.8 

(N,  B.    The  balance  of  percentages  not  indicated  were  born  elsewhere.) 


'  Certainly  to  be  born  in  this  country  may  not  mean  contact  with  American  life  ;  yet 
the  school  attendance,  contacts  in  play  and  work  often  help  the  child  born  in  this  country, 
of  foreign  parentage,  over  the  handicap  of  home  environment  where  the  parents  continue 
to  speak  the  native  tongue. 

[9] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

The  communities  studied  were:  San  Jose,  Santa  Clara,  South 
San  Francisco,  Sunnyvale,  Half  Moon  and  Milpitas.  All  these 
cities  and  towns  had  a  relatively  high  percentage  of  population 
of  South  European  ancestry,  while  the  bulk  of  the  remaining 
population  was  of  older  standing  in  the  communities  and  of 
Northern  European  background:  English,  German,  Scandinavian 
almost  completel3^  The  following  percentages  of  population  of 
this  latter  background  compared  with  that  of  the  various  South 
European  are  typical :  For  San  Jose,  Northern  European  ances- 
try ("Americans"),  56.5  per  cent;  South  Italian,  35.3  per  cent; 
Portuguese,  2.1  per  cent  and  Spanish-Mexican,  5.9.  Correspond- 
ing figures  for  Santa  Clara  are :  37.4 ;  5.8 ;  39.0 ;  20.7.  For  South 
San  Francisco:  27.0;  57.1;  14.2;  1.0. 

B.  Selection  of  Psychological  Tests. 

Since  it  was  the  purpose  in  this  study  to  handle  rather  large 
numbers  of  cases,  and  to  select  tests  which  would  answer  the 
question  of  alleged  language  handicap,  the  Binet  test  was  out  of 
the  question.  We  chose  two  group  tests,  one  decidedly  verbal  in 
its  make-up,  the  other  purely  performance  and  not  dependent  on 
knowledge  of  English  for  its  successful  manipulation.  The  first, 
the  army  alpha,  differentiates  mentality  down  to  ten  years  mental 
age  or  slightly  lower  perhaps.  It  would  outreach  the  mentality 
of  any  superior  child  found  in  the  group.  The  correlation  of 
-|-  .99  of  alpha  with  Binet  in  the  army  testing  proves  the  satis- 
factoriness  of  the  test  for  diagnosis  of  groups  (73,  p.  99).  The 
other  test,  beta,  was  the  best  performance  test  available.  The 
procedure  was  modified  slightly  over  that  given  in  the  army  to 
permit  instructions  to  be  given  in  simple  language  rather  than  by 
pantomime  as  was  done  in  the  former  case.  The  method  of  pre- 
senting typical  forms  and  demonstrating  was  continued.  Then 
came  simple  verbal  expression,  for  example :  "Look  at  your  papers, 
Test  Six.     Draw  in  the  missing  parts  as  I  did  on  the  board." 

C.  Outside  Criteria. 

To  check  the  statistical  results  from  the  tests,  data  on  grade 
location,  teachers'  estimates  of  school  work  and  of  intelligence 
were  collected.  Also  the  occupations  of  the  parents,  for  a  possible 
cue  to  the  influence  of  economic  level  on  the  standing  in  the  tests. 
The  scale  for  making  these  various  estimates  will  be  noted  when 
the  results  of  the  data  are  presented. 

[10] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

D.  The  Administration  and  Scoring  of  the  Tests. 

The  tests  were  given  by  the  writer  himself.  All  precautions 
possible  to  make  for  uniformity  of  conditions  were  taken.  Venti- 
lation, lighting,  presentation  of  test  material  itself — these  and 
allied  factors  were  carefully  guarded.  Alpha  was  usually  given 
first,  followed  by  beta  within  the  same  week  or  at  the  outside  two 
weeks  later.  The  children  were  selected  by  means  of  teachers ' 
registers,  as  well  as  by  enquiring  of  children  themselves  the  facts 
on  their  ages.  In  doubtful  cases,  school  nurses  and  principals 
were  called  in  to  determine  from  parents  the  child's  age.  Out  of 
nearly  1000  children  tested,  only  20  children  were  eliminated  for 
ages  incorrectly  given.  If  a  child  missed  one  of  the  two  tests, 
attempts  were  made  as  soon  as  he  returned  to  school  to  test  him. 
The  children  manifested  keen  interest  in  the  whole  procedure. 
Discipline  and  esprit  de  corps  were  excellent.  The  groups  were 
usually  of  fifty  or  less.  Only  in  two  instances  did  the  writer 
attempt,  with  the  help  of  teachers  and  fellow  graduate  students, 
to  give  the  test  to  as  many  as  100  children  at  once.  There  is  no 
evidence  whatever  that  the  administration  of  the  tests  by  a  stranger 
had  any  detrimental  effects.  The  writer  became  a  very  familiar 
person  about  the  school  buildings  and  grounds  during  the  course 
of  an  entire  school  year  and  the  children  were  always  courteous 
and  interested  in  what  he  was  doing. 

The  tests  were  scored  by  trained  assistants  and  by  the  writer 
himself.  Later  the  computations  in  individual  tests  were  checked 
on  adding  machine,  and  a  large  random  sample  of  the  tests  them- 
selves were  re-scored.     Errors  were  slight  if  any. 

E.  The  Materials. 

The  following  tables  present  the  raw  data  of  the  study  grouped 
into  convenient  units.'  "S.  J.  American"  refers  to  the  children  of 
North  European  ancestry  from  San  Jose,  California ;  "  S.  J.  Italian" 
refers  to  the  South  Italians  from  the  San  Jose  schools;  "Miscella- 
V neons  American"  refers  to  the  children  of  Northern  European 
ancestry  from  the  other  localities  outside  of  San  Jose ;  ' '  Miscellane- 
ous Italian"  in  similar  fashion  comprises  the  South  Italians  from 
communities  other  than  San  Jose.  For  Portuguese  and  Spanish- 
Mexican  children  they  came  at  random  from  all  the  localities.' 


^  Except  for  the  distribution  in  grades  which  is  given  in  percentages  in  the  next 
chapter. 

*  The  San  Jose  American  and  San  Jose  Italian  children  were  kept  separate  for  com- 
parative purposes.  And  the  Miscellaneous  groups  furnished  control  groups  for  checking 
on  results  from  San  Jose.  Misc.  will  be  used  to  abbreviate  Miscellaneous.  A  will  be  used 
in  some  instances  as  an  abbreviation  of  alpha,  and  B  for  beta.  Statistical  abbreviations 
follow  common  practice. 

[11] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


TABLE    II.     DISTRIBUTION    OF    TEACHERS'    ESTIMATES,    PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,   S.   J.  AMERICAN   CHILDREN 


— 1- 


-2— 


M  of  Two 

No. 

M  of  Two 

No. 

Taussig 

No. 

Barr 

No. 

Est.  Intel. 

Pupils 

Est.  Schwk. 

Pupils 

Oocp.  Sc. 

Pupils 

Occp.  Sc. 

Pupils 

1 

3 

1 

9 

5 

27 

12 

10 

1.6 

10 

1.5 

6 

4 

100 

11 

14 

2 

36 

2 

23 

3 

120 

10 

28 

2.5 

27 

2.5 

16 

2 

61 

9 

51 

8 

46 

3 

39 

1 

18 

8 

43 

3.6 

42 

3.5 

45 

Total 

316 

7 

62 

4 

80 

4 

76 

6 

30 

4.6 

30 

4.6 

38 

5 

46 

6 

27 

6 

35 

4 

31 

6.6 

9 

5.5 

10 

3 

1 

6 

6 

6 

16 

6.6 

2 

6.5 

2 

7 

1 

7 

2 

Total 


316 


Total 


316 


Total 


316 


TABLE   III.     ALPHA,    BETA,    AND    COMBINED    ALPHA   AND   BETA   TEST 
DISTRIBUTIONS,   S.    J.   AMERICAN   CHILDREN 


A 

B 

Comb.  A.  &  B. 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

150-159 

1 

95-99.5 

5 

220-239.5 

1 

140-149 

90-94.5 

2 

200-219.5 

6 

130-139 

85-89.9 

13 

180-199.5 

13 

120-129 

2 

80-84.5 

31 

160-179.5 

46 

110-119 

le 

76-79.5 

34 

140-159.5 

56 

100-109 

16 

70-74.5 

58 

120-139.5     ' 

58 

90-  99 

21 

65-69.5 

60 

100-119.5 

56 

80-  89 

34 

60-64.5 

36 

80-  99.5 

44 

70-  79 

30 

55-59.5 

27 

60-  79.5 

19 

60-  69 

42 

50-54.5 

18 

40-  59.5 

6 

60-  59 

34 

45-49.5 

15 

40-  49 

49 

40-44.5 

4 

30-  39 

33 

35-39.5 

4 

20-  29 

25 

10-  19 

13 

0-     9 

4 

Total 


314 


Total 


307 


Total 


305 


TABLE    IV.     DISTRIBUTION    OF    TEACHERS'    ESTIMATES,    PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,  S.  J.   ITALIAN  CHILDREN 


— 1— 


M  of  Two 

No. 

M  of  Two 

No. 

Taussig 

No. 

Bar 

Est.  Intel. 

Pupils 

Est 

.  Schwk. 

Pupils 

0cicp.  Sc. 

Pupils 

Occp. 

1.0 

1.0 

5 

10 

1.5 

1 

1.5 

3 

4 

25 

9 

2.0 

6 

2.0 

3 

3 

32 

8 

2.6 

7 

2.5 

2 

2 

37 

7 

3.0 

10 

3.0 

20 

1 

102 

6 

3.6 

21 

3.5 

16 

Total 

196 

6 

4.0 

48 

4.0 

51 

4 

4.6 

22 

4.5 

25 

3 

6.0 

40 

5.0 

36 

2 

6.6 

18 

6.6 

19 

6.0 

16 

6.0 

6 

6.6 

2 

6.5 

8 

7.0 

6 

7.0 

7 

— 4— 

p  No. 

Sc.      Pupils 

7 

13 

4 

9 

15 

38 

74 

35 

1 


Total 


196 


Total 


196 


Total 


196 


[12] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


TABLE   V.     ALPHA,   BETA,   AND   COMBINED  ALPHA   AND   BETA  TEST 
DISTRIBUTIONS,    S.    J.    ITALIAN    CHILDREN 

A  B  Comb.  A.  &  B. 


Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

90-94 

2 

95-99.5 

1 

160-179.5 

4 

85-89 

90-94.5 

140-159.5 

6 

80-84 

2 

85-89.5 

1 

120-139.5 

12 

75-79 

1 

80-84.5 

7 

100-119.5 

35 

70-74 

4 

75-79.5 

6 

80-  99.5 

39 

65-69 

3 

70-74.5 

13 

60-  79.5 

36 

60-64 

6 

65-69.5 

24 

40-  59.5 

36 

65-59 

2 

60-64.5 

25 

20-  39.6 

17 

50-54 

7 

55-59.5 

19 

0-  19.5 

3 

45-49 

12 

50-54.5 

25 

40-44 

14 

45-49.5 

23 

35-39 

15 

40-44.5 

10 

30-34 

12 

35-39.5 

15 

25-29 

18 

30-34.5 

6 

20-24 

16 

25-29.5 

8 

15-19 

15 

20-24.5 

5 

10-14 

22 

15-19.5 

2 

5-  9 

20 

10-14.5 

1 

0-  4 

21 

5-  9.5 

0-  4.5 

1 

Total 


191 


Total 


192 


Total 


187 


TABLE    VI.    DISTRIBUTION    OF    TEACHERS'    ESTIMATES,    PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,    PORTUGUESE    CHILDREN 

—1—  —2—  —3—  —4— 


M  of  Two 

No. 

M  of  Two           No. 

Taussig 

No. 

Barr 

No. 

Est.  Intel. 

Pupils 

Est 

.  Schwk.      Pupils 

Oc^ip.  Sc. 

Pupils        Occp.  Sc.      Pupils 

1.0 

1.0 

6 

10 

14 

1.5 

1.5 

4 

21 

9 

5 

2.0 

1 

2.0 

2 

3 

8 

8 

2.5 

1 

2.5 

1 

2 

15 

7 

3 

3.0 

3 

3.0 

2 

1 

34 

6 

3 

3.6 

6 

3^ 

4 

Total 

78 

6 

16 

4.0 

12 

4.0 

20 

4 

19 

4.5 

14 

4.5 

17 

3 

19 

5.0 

14 

5.0 

20 

5.5 

13 

6.5 

6 

6.0 

7 

6.0 

3 

6.5 

5 

6.6 

7.0 

2 

7.0 

4 

Total 

78 

Total 

78 

Total 

; 

78 

TABLE  VII. 

ALPHA, 

BETA  AND  COMBINED  ALPHA  AND 

BETA  TEST 

DISTRIBUTIONS,    PORTUGUESE    CHILDREN 

A 

B 

Comb.  A.  &  B. 

Scores 

Tota] 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

95-99 

1 

90-94.5 

1 

180-199.5 

1 

90-94 

1 

85-89.5 

1 

160-179.5 

2 

85-89 

1 

80-84.5 

1 

140-159.5 

3 

80-84 

2 

75-79.6 

1 

120-139.5 

5 

75-79 

70-74.5 

5 

100-119.6" 

11. 

70-74 

66-69.6 

9 

80-  99.5 

/,0 

9 

65-69 

60-64.5 

6 

60-  79.6 

/\  V 

18 

60-64 

55-59.5 

8 

40-  59.5 

17 

55-59 

8 

50-54.6 

10 

20-  39.5 

7 

60-54 

7 

45-49.5 

10 

0-  19.5 

1 

45-49 

1 

40-44.5 

8 

40-44 

2 

35-39.5 

3 

35-39 

6 

80-34.5 

8 

30-34 

4 

25-29.6 

2 

25-29 

7 

20-24.5 

1 

20-24 

7 

16-19.6 

16-19 

7 

10-14.6 

10-14 

6 

6-  9.6 

6-  9 

9 

0-  4.6 

1 

0-  4 

13 

Total 


77 


ToUl 


75 


[13] 


Total 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


TABLE   VIII.     DISTRIBUTION   OF   TEACHERS'    ESTIMATES,   PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,    SPANISH-MEXICAN   CHILDREN 


— 2- 


— 3— 


-4— 


M  of  Two 

No. 

M  of  Two 

No. 

Taussig 

No. 

Barr 

No. 

Est.  Intel. 

Pupils 

Est 

.  Schwk. 

Pupils 

Oocp.  Sc. 

Pupils 

Occp.  Sc. 

Pupils 

1.0 

1.0 

6 

10 

2 

1.6 

1 

1.5 

4 

4 

9 

2 

2.0 

2.0 

2 

3 

12 

8 

2 

2.6 

1 

2.5 

1 

2 

16 

7 

4 

3.0 

2 

3.0 

3 

1 

21 

6 

6 

3.6 

4 

3.5 

2 

Total 

53 

5 

16 

4.0 

8 

4.0 

17 

4 

13 

4.6 

15 

4.5 

6 

3 

8 

6.0 

8 

5.0 

11 

6.6 

6 

5.5 

7 

6.0 

3 

6.0 

2 

6.6 

2 

6.5 

1 

7.0 

3 

7.0 

1 

, 

Total 


63 


Total 


53 


Total 


53 


TABLE   IX.     APLHA,    BETA     AND    COMBINED    ALPHA   AND   BETA   TEST 
DISTRIBUTIONS.    SPANISH-MEXICAN    CHILDREN 


A 

B 

Comb.  A.  &  B. 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total- 

Scores 

Total 

65-69 

2 

80-84.5 

2 

140-159.5 

1 

60-64 

2 

75-79.5 

1 

120-139.5 

6 

55-59 

3 

70-74.5 

4 

100-119.5 

4 

50-64 

1 

65-69.5 

8 

80-  99.5 

12 

45-49 

1 

60-64.5 

1 

60-  79.6 

13 

40-44 

3 

55-59.5.  u7 
50-54.5  i  •' 

8 

40-  59.5 

10 

35-39 

3 

7 

20-  39.5 

4 

30-34 

4 

45-49.5/ 
40-44.r 

8 

0-  19.5 

1 

26-29 

6 

4 

20-24 

3 

35-39.5 

6 

16-19 

4 

30-34.5 

1 

10-14 

6 

25-29.5 

1 

5-  9 

7 

20-24.5 

1 

0-  4 

6 

15-19.6 

10-14.5 

5-  9.5 

0-  4.5 

1 
1 

Total 


61 


Total 


53 


Total 


61 


TABLE    X.     DISTRIBUTION    OF    TEACHERS'    ESTIMATES.    PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,    MISC.    ITALIAN    CHILDREN 
—1—  —2—  —3—  — 4— 

M  of  Two  No.  M  of  Two  No.  Taussig         No.  Barr  No. 

Est.  Intel.        Pupils      Est.  Schwk.      Pupils      Oocp.  Sc.     Pupils        Occp.  Sc.      Pupils 


1.0 
1.6 
2.0 
2.6 
3.0 

8.6 

4.0 
4.6 
6.0 
6.6 
6.0 
6.6 
7.0 

Total 


1 
1 
1 
4 

4 

7 

10 

10 

10 

5 

3 

1 

67 


1.0 

1.5 

1 

2.0 

1 

2.5 

1 

3.0 

3 

8.6 

9 

4.0 

10 

4.6 

9 

6.0 

8 

6.6 

6 

6.0 

4 

6.5 

4 

7.0 

1 

6 

4 
3 
2 
1 

Total 


19 

6 

12 

20 

67 


Total 


57 


10 
9 

8 
7 
6 

6 

4 
8 


Total 


7 
9 
1 
4 
1 

21 

7 
7 


57 


[14] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


TABLE   XI.     ALPHA,   BETA     AND   COMBINED    ALPHA    AND   BETA   TEST 
DISTRIBUTIONS.    MISC.    ITALIAN    CHILDREN 

A  B 


Scores 

Total 

Scores 

100-104 

1 

80-84.5 

96-99 

75-79.5 

90-94 

1 

70-74.5 

85-89 

65-69.5 

80-84 

60-64.5 

75-79 

55-59.5 

70-74 

2 

50-54.5 

65-69 

45-49.5 

60-64 

40-44.5 

55-59 

1 

35-39.5 

50-54 

30-34.5 

45-49 

25-29.5 

40-44 

3 

35-39 

2 

30-34 

8 

25-29 

6 

20-24 

10 

15-19 

9 

10-14 

6 

5-  9 

3 

0-  4 

6 

Comb.  A.  &  B. 

"otal 

Scores 

Total 

1 

160-179.5 

1 

1 

140-159.5 

2 

5 

120-139.5 

2 

7 

100-119.5 

5 

5 

80-  99.5 

16 

8 

60-  79.5 

13 

11 

40-  59.5 

11 

2 

20-  39.5 

4 

7 

2 

2 

3 

Total 


57 


Total 


54 


Total 


54 


TABLE  XII.     DISTRIBUTION  OF  TEACHERS'  ESTIMATES,   PARENTS' 
OCCUPATIONS,   MISC.   AMERICAN   CHILDREN 


— 1- 


M  of  Two 

Est.  Intel. 

1.0 
1.5 
2.0 
2.6 
3.0 


No. 


-2— 


Pupils      Est. 

3 
3 
4 

9 


M  of  Two 


Schwk. 

1.0 

1.5 

2.0 

2.5 

3.0 


No. 
Pupils 

2 
5 
3 

10 


Taussig         No. 


Oacp. 

5 
4 
3 
2 
1 


Sc. 


Pupils 

5 
22 
43 
12 

8 


— 4— 


Barr 
Occp.  Sc. 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 


No. 
Pupils 

2 

3 
11 
13 

2 


3.5 
4.0 
4.5 
5.0 
5.5 
6.0 
6.5 

Total 


37 
15 
4 
2 
4 
1 


90 


3.5 
4.0 
4.5 
5.0 
5.5 
6.0 


Total 


8 

29 

16 

11 

3 

3 


90 


Total 


90 


Total 


32 
7 

14 
4 
2 


90 


TABLE  Xin.     ALPHA,  BETA    AND   COMBINED  ALPHA  AND  BETA  TEST 
DISTRIBUTIONS,    MISC.    AMERICAN    CHILDREN 


A 

B 

Comb.  A.  &  B. 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

Scores 

Total 

100-109 

1 

95-99.5 

2 

180-199.5 

1 

90-99 

11 

90-94.5 

1 

160-179.5 

13 

80-89 

6 

85-89.5 

4 

140-159.5 

15 

70-79 

15 

80-84.5 

4 

120-139.5    ■ 

23 

60-69 

13 

75-79.5 

9 

100-119.5 

14 

50-59 

12 

70-74.5 

15 

80-  99.5 

9 

40-49 

8 

65-69.5 

13 

60-  79.5 

5 

30-39 

10 

60-64.5 

14 

40-  59.5 

2 

20-29 

4 

55-59.5 

11 

20-  39.5 

2 

10-19 

4 

50-64.5 

2 

0-  9 

4 

45-49.5 
40-44.5 
35-39.5 
30-34.5 
25-29.5 
20-24.5 

5 
3 

2 

1 

Total 


88 


Total 


86 


Total 


84 


[15] 


CHAPTER  III.    TREATMENT  OF  RESULTS 
1.  Preliminary  Survey* 

The  original  American  settlers  in  the  Santa  Clara  valley  were 
almost  entirely  of  North  European  ancestry,  with  the  bulk  of  them 
specifically  English  or  German  in  descent.  There  have  been  in 
these  communities,  however,  for  long  periods  a  small  minority  of 
both  French  and  Spanish,  The  school  problem  for  this  population 
was  similar  to  that  found  in  typical  northern  and  western  Ameri- 
can towns  and  villages  of  the  period  after  the  Civil  war.  About 
1890  there  began  a  considerable  incursion  of  immigration  of  South 
European  and  Mexican  sources,  and  since  1900  this  movement 
has  been  very  large,  until  now  the  communities  possess  a  notice- 
able percentage  of  foreign-born  persons  or  persons  of  foreign- 
bom  parentage. 

San  Jose  offers  throughout  this  thesis  the  chief  center  of  ma- 
terial, and  will  be  used  here  for  a  brief  summary  of  the  pertinent' 
history  of  the  school  problem  we  are  attempting  to  solve.  The 
Italian  constitutes  the  largest  group  of  foreigners  in  San  Jose,  and 
his  incoming  has  been  along  the  periphery  of  this  medium-sized 
city  of  30,000  or  so,  at  those  geographical  points  where  the  city 
proper  touches  the  surrounding  agricultural  districts,  with  its 
rich  vegetable  and  fruit  products.  Here  are  located  not  only 
many  of  the  finest  prune  ranches  and  tomato  tracts,  but  also  the 
canneries  and  other  industrial  plants  that  serve  to  supplement  the 
purely  agricultural  pursuits  of  the  laboring  population.  In  time 
the  Italians  and  to  less  degree  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexi- 
cans have  encircled  San  Jose  absorbing  entire  sections  until  in  the 
districts  comprising  two-thirds  of  the  city's  boundaries  are  found 
large  and  populous  neighborhoods  occupied  almost  without  excep- 
tion by  the  Italian  families. 

This  dislocation  of  the  population  of  these  neighborhoods, 
which  has  been  so  typical  in  all  American  cities  facing  a  similar 
situation,  had  profound  and  serious  effects  upon  the  public  schools. 
The  Italian  especially  of  all  the  groups  we  are  studying  is  ambi- 
tious for  "a  stake  in  the  land"  and  his  efforts  with  those  of  his 
children  are  bent  on  this  purpose.  The  Portuguese  is  much  less 
desirous  of  land  ownership  and  much  more  mobile,  and  likewise 


'  This  section  is  somewhat  abbreviated  from  the  longer  and  more  complete  history  in 
the  original  typewritten  thesis  now  in  the  Stanford  Library. 

[16] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

the  Spanish-Mexican  groups  are  transient  on  the  whole  compared 
to  the  South  Italian. 

The  effects  on  the  school  are  noticeable  in  three  particulars: 
(1)  school  discipline,  (2)  teaching  problem,  (3)  retardation.  All 
three  are  closely  related  to  the  one  outstanding  feature:  the  dif- 
ference in  educability  of  the  child  of  foreign  parentage  and  the 
child  of  North  European  ancestry.  '  In  discipline  the  problem  was 
one  of  dealing  with  temperamental  differences  in  the  groups,  and 
in  enforcing  school  attendance.  The  parents  of  the  Italian,  Por- 
tuguese and  Spanish-Mexican  children  little  realized  the  American 
mores  on  the  place  of  education  in  our  life.  Their  interests  being 
immediately  economical,  the  attendance  laws  had  to  be  vigorously 
enforced.  In  the  case  of  San  Jose  and  Santa  Clara,  the  last  five 
years,  at  least,  has  seen  a  very  determined  and  successful  attempt 
to  bring  the  child  of  foreign  parentage  into  the  school  and  to  keep 
him  there.  The  long  tenure  of  certain  well-qualified  principals 
and  teachers  has  assisted  in  this  matter.  The  teaching  problem 
became  really  one  of  dealing  with  children  of  different  cultural- 
backgrounds,  and  in  the  first  few  years  many  of  them  had  diffi- 
culty acquiring  the  use  of  the  English  which  is  the  key  instrument 
to  the  acquisition  of  the  elementary  curricula.  No  attempt  was 
made  beyond  observational  method  to  rate  the  teaching  efficiency 
of  the  school  systems  studied.  So  far  as  San  Jose,  Santa  Clara, 
Sunnyvale  and  South  San  Francisco  are  concerned  the  teaching 
there  was  average  considering  the  somewhat  crowded  conditions 
in  the  class-rooms  and  a  somewhat  ancient  rule  of  pedagogical  pro- 
cedure. The  principals  in  the  schools  attended  by  the  foreign 
children  were  all  exceptionally  alive  to  their  problem,  and  re- 
arrangements of  sections,  rooms  for  retarded  and  backward,  and 
such  usual  makeshifts  were  in  use.  In  the  case  of  the  schools  in 
more  rural  districts,  like  Half  Moon  and  Milpitas,  the  handicaps 
of  the  ordinary  country  school  were  more  apparent ;  several  grades 
to  a  teacher,  lack  of  equipment  and  poor  compensation.  But  even 
in  these  eases  the  work  was  pretty  high  calibre,  for  these  com- 
munities are  in  well-regulated  parts  of  the  state  whose  entire  school 
system  is  in  the  first  rank  of  our  country. 

Facts  of  retardation  furnish  the  most  convenient  presentation 
of  the  educational  situation.  Certain  sample  facts  were  collected 
on  age-grade  distributions  in  San  Jose  and  Santa  Clara  which 
throw  into  relief  at  once  the  crux  of  our  problem.  The  following 
tables  summarize  the  matter  for  the  entire  city  of  San  Jose  and 

[17] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

especially  for  four  schools  which  serve  as  samples  of  the  entire 
system  there.  Schools  A  and  B  are  attended  largely  by  children 
of  North-European  ancestry,  and  C  and  D  by  Latins.  The  amount 
of  retardation  in  the  specific  race  groups  was  not  available.  We 
have  followed  the  Ay  res  method  of  computing  retardation  (3,  ch. 
4)  but  in  one  column  have  given  the  figures  for  retardation  in 
these  schools  if  three  years  rather  than  two  be  "allowed"  for 
normal  progress.  The  diiferences  between  the  sample  "Ameri- 
can" schools  and  the  sample  "Latin"  schools  is  still  quite  as 
marked,  when  three  years  is  allowed  for  passing  a  given  grade. 


TABLE   XIV.     RETARDATION  IN   CERTAIN   SCHOOLS   IN   SAN   JOSE,   1919-20 

Per  Cent  Per  Cent  Per  Cent 

School                                      No.  Pupils   No.  Retard.       Retard.  Retard.  Latins 

(Ay res)  (3-yr.  Scale)  in  Schoola 

Total    San    Jose    4939                 2098                  42.4  20.3  40.0 

School    A    652                    177                  27.1  9.8  16.1 

School     B     629                    187                  29.7  12.1  17.6 

School    C     , 770                    399                  51.8  26.8  81.4 

School    D     744                    464                  62.1  38.4  72.4 


TABLE   XV.     COMPARATIVE   RETARDATION    BY   GRADE   IN    SCHOOLS    A,    B,    C 
AND  D;  ALSO  PERCENTAGE  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE  VARIOUS  GRADES 

1.  For  Schools  A  and  B  Together 


Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Grades 

No.  Pupils 

No.  Retard. 

Retarded 

in  Grades 

I 

212 

29 

13.7 

16.6 

II 

150 

33 

22.0 

11.7 

III 

149 

49 

32.9 

11.7 

IV 

137 

60 

36.5 

10.7 

V 

161 

59 

36.6 

12.6 

VI 

169 

62 

36.6 

13.2 

VII 

140 

34 

24.3 

10.8 

VIII 

163 

48 

29.4 

12.7 

Total 

1281 

364 

2.    For  Schools  C 

AND 

D  Together 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Grades 

No.  Pupils 

No. 

Retard. 

Retarded 

in  Grades 

I 

335 

143 

42.7 

22.1 

II 

243 

138 

56.8 

16.1 

III 

193 

118 

61.1 

12.7 

IV 

208 

134 

64.4 

18.7 

V 

145 

103 

71.0 

9.6 

VI 

168 

104 

61.9 

11.1 

VII 

126 

78 

61.9 

8.8 

VIII 

96 

46 

46.8 

6.3 

Total 


1514 


863 


Table  XV  shows  the  situation  of  retardation  by  grade  for  the 
two  sample  "American"  schools  and  the  two  "Latin"  schools  taken 
each  together.  In  addition  is  presented  the  percentage  of  the 
total  enrollment  found  in  the  various  grades.  For  schools  A  and 
B  the  retardation  figures  for  all  the  grades  but  the  first  run  from 

[18] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

22  to  slightly  above  36  per  cent.  The  largest  retardation  is  found 
in  grades  IV,  V  and  VI.  In  schools  C  and  D  together  the  retarda- 
tion figures  for  grades  II  to  VII  inclusive  is  over  50  per  cent  for 
each  grade  and  reaches  in  the  fifth  the  astounding  proportions  of 
71  per  cent.  The  largest  figures  are  shown  for  grades  III,  IV, 
V,  VI  and  VII.  In  both  these  schools  the  duplication  of  sections 
for  both  lower  and  upper  half  grades  is  very  much  greater  than 
in  schools  A  and  B.  Not  only  does  retardation  clog  the  school 
machinery,  but  the  teaching  problem  is  made  more  difficult. 
Those  who  sit  two  years  in  the  grades  are  usually  those  who  profit 
least  by  the  instruction. 

Interesting  side-light  on  the  problem  is  shown  moreover  by 
scanning  the  column  at  the  extreme  right  of  the  table.  For  A  and 
B  with  the  exception  of  the  first  grade  the  percentage  of  pupils 
of  the  total  enrollment  is  throughout  pretty  uniform.  Normally 
if  the  children  were  theoretically  placed  in  the  grades  the  per- 
centage for  each  would  lie  between  12  and  13.  The  actual  figures 
from  grade  II  to  VIII  is  from  slightly  less  than  11  to  a  fraction 
above  13.  For  C  and  D  with  the  one  exception  of  grade  VI  there 
is  a  steady  decline  in  the  percentage  of  pupils  from  grade  I  with 
22  per  cent  (over  one-fifth  of  total  enrollment)  to  but  a  trifle  over 
6  per  cent  in  the  eighth  grade.  Curiously  too,  for  that  grade,  the 
fifth,  with  the  greatest  retardation,  the  percentage  of  total  enroll- 
ment is  only  9.6  per  cent. 

The  results  for  these  two  groups  of  schools  in  San  Jose  are 
typical  not  only  for  San  Jose  but  for  the  other  cities  and  towns 
from  which  the  children  tested  came.  In  the  case  of  Sunnyvale 
the  school  compared  more  favorably  with  schools  A  and  B,  but 
in  South  San  Francisco,  Milpitas  and  Half  Moon  retardation 
conditions  were  more  serious  than  in  San  Jose.  Specific  retarda- 
tion reports  on  these  smaller  localities  are  omitted.  For  Santa 
Clara,  however,  certain  statistics  are  available  through  the  work 
of  a  former  principal  there  and  sample  tables  from  her  work  are 
given  (85). 

Santa  Clara  has  one  large  public  elementary  school  in  size 
much  like  school  C  in  San  Jose,  except  that  the  number  of  children 
of  North  European  ancestry  is  somewhat  higher.  The  economic, 
and  social  background  of  the  school  population  is  not  unlike  the 
similar  school  population  in  schools  C  and  D.  The  following 
figures  are  for  the  upper  grades  only  (the  half  grades  are  put 
together) : 

[19] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

TABLE  XVI.     RETARDATION  AND  ACCELERATION  IN  SANTA  CLARA,   1917-18  '• 

1.    Non-Latins 


Grade 

No.  in 

No. 

Amt. 

No. 

No. 

Amt. 

Class 

Accel. 

Accel. 

Normal 

Retard. 

Reterd 

IV 

32 

6 

7 

17 

9 

23 

V 

27 

S 

6 

11 

13 

39 

VI 

38 

14 

18 

19 

6 

10 

VII 

41 

8 

11 

18 

15 

37 

VIII 

38 

11 

21 

16 

11 

18 

Totals 

176 
Terms    retarded 

42 
127 

63 

81 

63 

127 

Terms    accelerated    63 

Retardation 

64 
2 

.    Latins 

Grade 

No.  in 

No. 

Amt. 

No. 

No. 

Amt. 

Class 

Accel. 

Accel. 

Normal 

Retard. 

Retard 

IV 

43 

3 

3 

4 

36 

114 

V 

42 

5 

6 

4 

33 

160 

VI 

20 

1 

1 

5 

14 

40 

VII 

15 

4 

11 

25 

VIII 

4 

1 

3 

4 

Total  124  9 

Terms  retarded      343 
Terms   accelerated    10 


10 


18 


97 


343 


Retardation 


333 


Again  the  difference  between  the  Latins  and  the  non-Latins 
is  marked.  The  retardation  is  progressively  greater  as  one  pro- 
ceeds through  the  lower  grades.  The  following  brief  table  is 
culled  from  Miss  Preston's  study  in  attempt  to  throw  light  on 
possible  causes  of  this  state  of  difference  between  the  groups  with 
which  the  school  had  to  deal. 


TABLE  XVII.     RANGE  OF  INTELLIGENCE  QUOTIENTS  OF  PUPILS  IN 
CERTAIN   GRADES,  SANTA  CLARA,   1917-18 

Ranges  of  I.  Q.'s  in  Grades 

V  VI  VII  VIII 

68-  98  63-104  66-103  71-106 

61-125  90-154  82-125  75-134 


Race  IV 

Latins     66-108 

Non-Latins    81-128 


The  range  of  I.  Q.'s  with  which  the  teachers  deal  is  closely  re- 
lated to  the  amount  of  retardation.  It  is  self-apparent  that  while 
in  both  Latin  and  non-Latin  groups  the  range  of  intelligence  is 
rather  long,  that  the  problem  of  teaching  the  American  children, 
in  terms  of  ability,  is  far  easier  than  with  the  Latins  who  in  no 
case  rise  but  a  few  points  above  the  standard  average  intelligence 
which  would  be  expected  of  children  in  any  given  grade. 

The  following  quotation  from  the  study  of  Miss  Preston  at 
Santa  Clara  typifies  the  whole  matter  (85,  p,  22)  : 

Since  it  is  well  recognized  that  no  class  can  make  progress  faster  than 
the  majority  comprising  it,  these  figures  (some  of  which  were  quoted 
above)   show  the  impossibility  of  the  first,  second,  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 

"  Computed  on  baeia  of  school  terms  of  half-year's  duration, 

[20] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

grades,  with  a  majority  below  normal,  making  the  progress  possible  in 
1905  when  the  great  majority  were  normal.  .  .  .  Letting  the  superior 
(pupils)  skip  a  grade  helped  a  month  or  so  at  the  time,  but  as  the  class 
they  went  into  was  still  progressing  at  what  was  a  snail 's  pace  for  them, 
they  again  tended  to  sink  back  into  a  state  of  inertia,  losing  initiative  and 
forming  habits  of  indolence  without  developing  the  power  of  application 
and  executive  ability  for  which  there  is  so  strong  a  demand  in  the  world's 
work. 

It  is  obvious  that  we  are  dealing  with  certain  classes  of  South 
Europeans  who  come  to  our  shores  who  present  a  serious  problem 
not  only  industrially  and  politically  but  educationally.  The  big 
bulk  of  these  people  are  of  peasant  type :  patient,  persevering,  and 
mediocre.  Is  their  difficulty  in  our  schools,  their  lack  of  educa- 
bility  (for  that  is  what  it  is)  one  of  language  handicap  alone,  one 
of  difference  of  cultural  heredity  or  does  the  principal  cause  lie 
in  roots  over  which  the  environment  has  little  play?  In  the  pres- 
ent study  we  shall  attempt  to  present  further  evidence  on  the 
possible  cause  of  the  educational  problem  and  its  implications, 
and  believe  that  psychological  tests  and  other  measures  of  pro- 
ficiency will  aid  in  the  solution  of  this  perplexing  question. 


2.  Measures  of  Averages,  Dispersion  and  Overlapping 

This  section  deals  with  the  statistical  treatment  of  the  data. 
Since  there  are  two  general  sets  of  material, — first,  grade-location, 
teachers'  ratings  of  intelligence  and  of  school  work  and  social- 
economic  status  of  parents,  and  second,  the  results  of  the  mental 
tests, — it  will  be  convenient  to  deal  at  first  with  each  class  of  data 
separately. 

A.  School  S^tccess  and  Teachers'  Estimates. 

i.  Grade  Location.  The  position  of  any  pupil  in  the  scale  of 
grades  may  be  thought  of  as  a  common  measure  of  his  school  suc- 
cess. Table  XVIII  shows  the  percentage  of  the  total  number  of 
12-year-old  children  in  the  respective  grades.  The  facts  of  re- 
tardation brought  out  above  would  lead  one  to  expect  that  in  a 
group  of  children  of  such  an  age  one  would  find  a  wide  range  of 
grades  covered.  Since  the  purpose  of  this  study  is  to  compare 
three  groups  of  pupils  of  Latin  stock  with  pupils  who  are  North 
European  (non-Latin)  in  origin,  it  will  be  convenient  throughout 
to  use  the  latter  as  the  point  of  departure. 

[21] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


TABLE    XVIII.     PERCENTAGE    OF    12-YEAR-OLDS    IN    VARIOUS    GRADES 

BY   RACIAL   GROUP 

(A) 


Grade 

American  S.  J. 

Italian  S.  J. 

Spanish-Mexican 

I    HS 

.3 

H  8 

.6 

L   8 

3.4 

.5 

H   7 

6.9 

2.6 

3.8 

L    7 

24.3 

4.1 

H  6 

12.0 

6.1 

9.4 

L  6 

18.6 

16.8 

1^.2 

H  5 

11.1 

18.3 

8.8 

L  5 

8.9 

9.2 

16.9 

H  4 

6.0 

9.7 

20.7 

L  4 

3.7 

10.7 

15.2 

H  3 

1.8 

13.3 

7.5 

L  3 

6.1 

1.9 

H  2 

2.0 

5.7 

L  2 

1.9 

H  1 

.5 

Total    Nos. 

316 

(B) 

196 

53 

Grade 

American  Misc. 

Italian  Misc. 

Portuguese 

8 

3.3 

1.3 

7 

43.3 

14.1 

9.0 

6 

34.4 

28.0 

26.9 

5 

11.1 

24.5 

32.0 

4 

6.6 

.24.5 

21.7 

3 

1.1 

7.0 

7.7 

2 

1.4 

1.3 

Total   Nos. 

90 

57 

78 

It  is  evident  at  once  that  the  range  of  grades  for  the  non-Latin 
group  out-reaches  that  of  any  of  the  other  groups  at  the  upper 
end.  In  the  case  of  the  San  Jose  data,  the  Italian  group  has  a 
range  of  fourteen  half  grades,  the  Americans  but  twelve.  The 
former,  however,  run  from  high  first  grade  to  and  including  low 
eighth  grade,  the  latter  reaches  from  the  high  third  to  the  fresh- 
man high  school,  inclusive.  Inspection  of  the  arrays  indicates 
that  there  are  really  two  modal  locations  of  the  pupils  in  all  three 
groups.  The  Americans  are  located  principally  in  the  low  seventh 
and  in  the  low  sixth ;  the  Italians  in  the  high  fifth  and  low  sixth, 
and  in  the  high  third  and  the  low  fourth ;  the  Spanish-Mexicans 
are  located  in  the  low  sixth  (a  comparatively  small  group)  and  in 
the  low  fourth,  high  fourth  and  low  fifth.  Forty-three  per  cent 
of  the  total  number  of  Spanish-Mexicans  are  located  in  these  latter 
three  half-grades.  Observation  of  the  percentages  in  Table  XVIII 
shows  that  the  point  between  the  high  fifth  and  the  low  sixth  may 
be  considered  as  the  median  for  the  Spanish  and  Italian  groups 
combined.  Using  this  as  a  reference,  the  figures  reveal  that  47 
per  cent  of  the  Americans  exceed  the  low  sixth  grade  level  of 
these  Latin  groups. 

The  facts  of  the  second  set  of  data  in  Table  XVIII  indicate 
much  the  same  sort  of  comparison.      Here  the  data  had  to  be 

[22] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

thrown  into  whole  grades  which  smooths  out  some  of  the  differ- 
ences that  would  be  apparent  in  grouping  by  half-grades.  The 
modal  grade  for  the  Portuguese  is  the  fifth,  that  for  the  Misc. 
American  the  seventh,  while  the  Misc.  Italians  are  spread  fairly 
evenly  over  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  grades,  with  a  slight  pre- 
ponderance in  the  last.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Misc.  Italian 
and  Misc.  American  groups  are  very  nearly  identical  with  the 
San  Jose  Italian  and  American  data  respectively. 

The  facts  of  grade  location,  then,  would  point  to  decided  dif- 
ferences in  the  Latin  and  non-Latin  groups,  a  difference  on  the 
average  of  from  one  and  one-half  to  two  grades.  It  is  at  once 
questioned:  Is  this  difference  due  to  the  language  handicap  of 
the  former  group,  or  is  it  due  to  difference  in  mental  capacity  in 
the  two  groups?  What  light  will  the  teachers'  estimates  of  gen- 
eral intelligence  and  of  school  work  throw  on  the  possible  cause 
of  this,  or  at  least,  will  there  be  any  general  similarity  of  these 
measures  of  ability  and  education  and  the  standing  of  the  pupils 
in  the  grades? 

ii.  Teachers'  Estimates  of  General  Intelligence.  Table  XIX 
shows  the  means,  with  their  S.  D.'s,  of  the  teachers'  estimates  of 
general  intelligence  and  of  school  work."  The  ratings  were  taken 
twice  and  these  figures  are  for  the  mean  of  the  two.  The  ratings 
on  the  American  children  seem  a  little  more  reliable,  as  indicated 
by  the  P.  E.  of  the  means,  than  those  for  the  Latin  groups.  One 
would  expect  that  the  teachers  would  be  somewhat  more  constant 
in  their  estimation  of  the  American  children.  The  Latin  children 
are  probably  a  little  more  favorably  looked  upon  by  the  teachers 
than  the  non-Latins  because  of  over-ageness.  It  is  the  common 
experience  of  all  investigators  that  the  teachers  have  a  decided 
tendency  to  over-estimate  the  intelligenc  of  these  immigrant  pupils 
due  to  their  chronological  age.  The  12-year-old  Italian,  for  in- 
stance, who  is  in  the  low  fourth  grade  is  large  for  his  age  and 
probably  average  in  school  performance,  hence  the  teacher  unwit- 


"  The  estimates  were  made  for  both  intelliKcnce  and  school  work  on  the  foilowing 
seven-fold  scale : 

1 — Very  Superior. 

2 — Superior. 

3 — High  Average. 

4 — Average. 

5 — Low  Average. 

6 — Inferior. 

7 — Very  Inferior. 

In  rating  intelligence  the  teachers  were  instructed  to  rate  the  pupil  in  comparison 
with  all  12-year-olds  ;  in  rating  school  work,  to  compare  him  with  the  average  performance 
of  his  particular  class. 

[23] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

tingly  rates  him  as  average  in  intelligence,  forgetting  that  the 
average  12-year-old  is  really  in  the  sixth  or  seventh  grade.  This 
subjective  factor  creeps  in  constantly  in  spite  of  careful  instruc- 
tions, both  oral  and  written,  to  the  contrary.  Any  rating,  of 
course,  is  as  much  a  measure  of  the  person  making  the  rating  as 
of  the  person  rated.  Furthermore,  a  rating  is  really  a  rank  in  a 
class,  not  an  objective  measure  as  we  think  of  them  so  commonly." 


TABLE   XIX.     AVERAGES   AND   MEASURES   OF   DISPERSION  IN   TEACHERS' 
ESTIMATES  OF  INTELLIGENCE  AND  QUALITY  OF  SCHOOL  WORK 

INTELLIGENCE  SCHOOL  WORK 

Race    Group  Mean      S.D.M.  P.E.M.  S.D.Dist.  Mean      S.D.M.   P.E.M.  S.D.Dist 

American    S.    J 3.65  .12  .08  2.15  3.59  .13  .09  2.37 

Italian   S.   J 4.42  .16  .11  2.22  4.85  .16  .11  2.24 

Portuguese     4.66  .23  .16  2.05  4.68  .22  .15  1.89 

Spanish-Mexican   4.88  .30  .20  2.48  4.42  .28  .19  2.02 

Italian    Misc 4.35  .30  .20  2.28  4.55  .31  .21  2.31 

American    Misc 3.90  .20  .14  1.92  3.95  .20  .14  1.91 

TABLE  XX.  DIFFERENCES  IN  THE  MEANS  AND  THE  P.  E.  OF  DIFFERENCES 

INTELfclGENCE  SCHOOL  WORK 

Race  Difference  P.  E.  of  Difference  P.  E.  of 

Groups  in  Means  *       Difference         in  Means         Difference 

American  and   Italian   S.    J 77  .14  1.26  .14 

American  and   Portuguese  1.01  .18  1.09  .18 

American  and   Spanish-Mexican    1.23  .22  .83  .21 

American  Misc.   and  Italian   Misc 45  .24  .60  .25 

•  All  the  differences  are  "less"  than  the  American'  means. 

Table  XX  shows  the  differences  in  the  means  of  the  groups  in 
teachers'  estimates  of  intelligence.  These  reveal  in  another  way 
that  the  Italians  are  nearer  the  Americans  in  performance,  the 
Spanish-Mexicans  farther  awa}^  with  the  Portuguese  between.  The 
P.  E.  's  of  the  differences  are  insignificant  where  the  differences  are 
at  all  large;  where  they  are  small  the  P.  E.'s  are  large,  showing, 
as  is  evident,  that  the  difference  while  small  may  fluctuate  within 
the  limits  of  the  P.  E.  and  yet  not  be  far  different  than  at  present. 
It  means  practically  that  the  difference  is  of  no  importance. 

The  American  groups  out-rank  the  Latins  about  .8  of  one 
class-rank  on  the  seven-fold  scale.  Just  how  much  this  difference 
is  in  terms  of  objective  scores  in  a  given  test  or  in  mental  age  it 
is  difficult  to  determine.  Also  whether  the  units  on  such  a  scale 
are  to  be  considered  equal  or  variable,  is  unknown.  And  more 
difficult  to  decide  is  whether  in  the  minds  of  the  teachers,  they 
were  so  considered.  At  any  rate  one  may  say  that  roughly  the 
mean  difference  is  about  one-eighth  of  the  entire  range  on  the  scale 
of  estimation.     If  the  range  of  grades  be   represented  as  eight, 

'=Cf:  (17),  (111)  and  (110.  pp.  24,  26)  on  difficulties  in  objective  trait  rating  by 
teachers. 


[24] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

then  the  difference  in  the  mean  grade  would  be  approximately 
one-sixth  to  one-eighth  of  the  range  there.  This  perhaps  gives  a 
crude  indication  of  the  comparative  likeness  of  these  two  measures 
of  the  pupils'  ability  to  take  on  the  traditional  education  offered 
by  the  public  schools. 


TABLE 

XXI.     PI 

CRCENTA( 

3E    OF    I 

'UPiLs  r: 

ECEIVIN 

G    GIVEN 

RATINC 

JS   IN 

INTELLIGENCE 

AND  SCHOOL  WORK  " 

( Teachers'   Estimates ) 

RACE  GROUPS 

Rating 

American  S.  J. 

Italian  S.  J. 

Portuguese 

Spanish-Mexican 

Scale 

Intell. 

Schwk. 

Intell. 

Schwk. 

Intell. 

Schwk. 

Intell. 

Schwk. 

1.0 

.9 

2.8 

1.5 

3.0 

1.9 

.5 

1.5 

1.9 

1.9 

2.0 

11.1 

7.3 

2.6 

1.5 

1.3 

2.6 

3.8 

2.5 

8.5 

5.0 

3.5 

1.0 

1.3 

1.3 

1.9 

1.9 

3.0 

14.2 

12.3 

5.1 

10.2 

3.9 

2.6 

3.8 

5.7 

3.5 

13.2 

14.2 

10.7 

8.1 

7.7 

5.1 

7.5 

3.8 

4.0 

25.3 

24.1 

24.4 

26.0 

15.3 

26.6 

15.2 

32.0 

4.5 

9.4 

12.0 

11.2 

12.8 

17.9 

21.8 

28.3 

11.3 

5.0 

8.5 

11.1 

20.4 

18.3 

17.9 

25.6 

15.2 

20.7 

5.5 

2.8 

3.1 

9.2 

9.7 

16.6 

6.4 

11.3 

13.2 

6.0 

1.6 

4.7 

8.1 

3.1 

9.0 

3.8 

5.7 

3.8 

6.5 

.6 

.6 

1.0 

4.1 

6.4 

3.8 

1.9 

7.0 

.3 

.6 

3.1 

3.5 

2.6 

5.1 

5.7 

1.9 

Table  XXI  gives  the  percentages  in  each  one-half  of  class-rank, 
i.  €.,  on  seven-fold  scale,  for  the  groups.  Here,  as  in  grade  loca- 
tion, the  American  group  indicates  a  skewness  toward  the  upper 
end  of  the  curve.  This  may  indicate  as  does  the  skewness  in  grade 
location  for  age,  that  the  American  groups  are  superior  to  the 
average  for  their  age  throughout  the  country  at  large.  It  must 
be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  the  comparison  is  between  the 
older  American  stock  and  the  newer  immigrant  constituency.  The 
mean  age-grade  location  for  the  total  school  population  must  lie 
somewhere  between  the  two.  So  with  the  estimates  of  native 
ability,  when  compared  to  the  "average"  child  who  is  in  this  age- 
group.  In  any  case,  again,  there  is  marked  difference  in  the  esti- 
mated intelligence  of  the  groups.  The  Latins  falling  more  closely 
together,  with  the  Americans  out-stripping  in  the  higher  ranges, 
and  being  not  only  relatively  better  off  in  the  latter,  but  absolutely, 
for  in  no  case  did  any  Latin  pupil  receive  a  mean  rating  of  "Very 
Superior"  in  general  mental  ability,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Latin  group  had  a  decided  percentage  in  its  favor  who  were  con- 
sidered "Very  Inferior.'* 

Whatever  be  the  consensus  of  opinion  as  to  the  validity  of  the 
teachers'  ratings  of  pupils  (121),  the  fact  remains  that  it  has  con- 
siderable validity  for  rough  classification  and  correlational  treat- 
ment has  shown  that  while  it  is  not  so  reliable  for  prognostication 


"  This  table  computed  from  Tables  II,  IV,   VI,  VIII.     The  figures  are  based  on  the 
mean  of  two  estimates. 


[25] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

as  are  mental  measurements,   it  is  much  more  so  than  random 
subjective  impression  that  this  pupil  is  thus,  and  that  one  so. 

The  significant  matter  for  the  present  purpose  is  the  apparent 
close  relation  of  these  estimates  to  grade  location,  and  the  all- 
around  superiority  of  the  American  children  in  the  minds  of  the 
teachers.  While  taking  into  account  the  likelihood  of  considerable 
error  in  teachers'  ratings,  the  indubitable  fact  remains  that  these 
ratings  do  show  wide  differences  in  the  abilities  of  the  groups  in 
question. 

Hi.  Teachers'  Estimates  of  School  Work.  The  ratings  on  qual- 
ity of  school  work  were  on  the  same  seven-fold  scale  as  the  estimates 
of  intelligence.  In  this  case,  the  teacher  was  requested  to  compare 
the  child  to  be  rated  with  the  average  child  in  his  grade.  Table 
XXI  shows  the  facts  concerning  the  percentage  of  each  racial 
group  falling  in  the  scale.  Again  the  Americans  are  much  more 
variable  than  the  Latin  groups,  but  in  the  case  of  the  C.  T.  the 
groups  are  much  farther  apart  than  they  are  in  estimates  of  intel- 
ligence. The  mean  difference  of  all  the  means  of  the  groups  for 
the  school  work  is  .94  of  the  range  of  one  class-interval  or  class- 
rank  in  the  scale.     This  is  nearly  one-seventh  of  total  range. 

Table  XX  presents  the  mean  differences  in  the  C.  T.  of  the 
estimates  of  school  work  for  the  several  groups.  As  in  the  case 
of  rating  intelligence  there  persists  a  considerable  divergence  of 
the  Latins  from  the  Americans, 

It  is  also  instructive  that  while  3  per  cent  of  the  American 
group  averaged  "Very  Superior"  in  the  rating  of  school  success, 
none  of  the  Latin  group  warranted  the  same.  Yet  one  must  be 
careful  not  to  overlook  the  facts  that  may  go  to  influence  any 
teacher's  rating  of  a  child  (111,  pp.  95,  97).  Not  only  personal 
factors  of  appearance,  impression  and  prepossession  generally 
affect  the  ratings,  but  also  the  fact  that  what  may  constitute  "aver- 
age" in  school  work  to  one  teacher  may  not  be  so  to  another. 

In  the  case  of  school  work,  as  in  rating  intelligence,  the  over- 
ageness  of  the  immigrant  children  gives  them  an  advantage  with 
the  teachers.  The  fact  that  they  are  retarded  in  the  grades,  sit- 
ting perhaps  a  second  time  in  a  particular  section,  is  ignored  or 
forgotten  when  the  comparison  is  with  pupils  much  younger  and 
attacking  the  school  work  for  the  first  time.  Even  these  facts  do 
not  prevent  marked  differences  in  the  mean  performance  at  each 
grade  for  the  common  age  of  12  years, 

[26] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

TABLE  XXII.     MEAN  TEACHERS'   RATING  OF  SCHOOL  WORK   FOR  EACH 
GRADE,   ALL   PUPILS   BEING   12- YEAR-OLDS 


Grades 

H        L        H 

2          3          3 

L         H 

4          4 

L         H 

5          5 

L        H 

6           6 

L        H 

7           7 

L 

8 

H    I 
8  HS 

Amer.    S.    J. 
Italian    S.    J. 
Spanish-Mex. 

Portuguese 

5.00 
5.25     5.00     5.65 
5.34     4.50     4.25 
3 
5.16 

4.75     4.71 

4.88     4.70 

4.87     4.40 

4 

4.67 

4.21     4.13 

4.69     4.00 

4.55     3.25 

5 

4.28 

3.68     3.68 
3.91     4.25 

6 
4.29 

3.46     3.27 
3.75     3.10 

7 
4.67  t 

2.68 

*     « 

♦  Omitted  because  of  too  few  cases. 
t  Portuguese  in  full  grades. 

Table  XXII  shows  this  feature  of  the  matter  of  school  work 
as  related  to  grade  and  age  factors.  Tabulating  the  12-year-olds 
for  American  and  Latin  groups  by  their  grade  location  and  then 
determining  the  mean  of  the  teacher-ratings  of  school  work  for 
those  in  the  particular  grades,  one  is  able  to  see  again  that  the 
teachers'  estimates  are  about  what  one  would  expect.  Not  only 
is  the  retarded  12-3'ear-old  back  in  his  grade  location,  but  he  is 
also  retarded  in  his  school  ability  in  the  grade  in  which  he  is  found. 
The  table  shows  that  beginning  with  the  lowest  grade  in  the  case 
of  the  Italian  children,  the  mean  of  the  average  ratings  on  school 
work  are  below  the  average  for  that  particular  grade,  but  as  one 
goes  up  the  scale  toward  the  grades  normally  occupied  by  the 
12-year-olds  he  finds  the  mean  approaching  the  average  for  the 
grade.  At  the  high  fifth  the  Italian  seems  to  be  average  for  his 
grade,  he  is  slightly  better  for  the  low  sixth,  not  so  good  in  high 
sixth,  and  again  better  in  the  next  two  half  grades.  The  number 
of  cases  is  small  in  high  seventh  and  there  is  but  one  case  in  low 
eighth.  In  the  case  of  the  Americans  much  the  same  thing  is 
observed.  The  12-year-old  who  is  in  the  lower  grades  is  poorer 
in  his  class  than  the  much  younger  but  abler  pupils  even  though 
he  has  sat  in  his  grade  perhaps  two  or  three  terms.  The  Ameri- 
cans rate  "average"  at  about  the  same  point  as  the  Italians  (be- 
tween the  high  fifth  and  the  low  sixth  grades).  But  both  the 
Italians  and,  more  so,  the  American  children,  who  are  in  the  sev- 
enth and  eighth  grades  do  better  than  the  average  of  the  class. 
As  the  12-year-olds  in  the  lower  grades  are  much  more  retarded 
than  the  younger  children  in  these  grades,  so  the  12-year-old  who 
is  advanced  in  his  grade  is  also  superior  to  the  average  of  his  class. 

Like  figures  are  given  in  the  table  for  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish,  but  the  numbers  in  the  separate  classes  are  rather  small. 
The  Portuguese,  it  will  be  recalled,  are  tabulated  only  in  whole 
grades.  But,  in  general,  the  same  situation  holds  for  these  pupils. 
The  12-year-old  who  is  in  the  lower  grades  is  poorer  in  school  per- 
formance than  his  class  average,  although  he  has  had  the  advan- 
tage of  additional  time,  study  and  teachers'  instruction. 

[27] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

B.  The  Social-Economic  Status  of  the  Parents. 

The  parents'  occupations'*  were  noted  when  the  tests  were 
given,  and  were  later  checked  up  in  doubtful  cases  through  the 
principal's  office.  While  a  somewhat  extensive  rating  scheme  has 
been  used  for  correlational  treatment,  a  simpler  scale,  that  of 
Taussig  (109,  pp.  134-8)  will  be  employed  here  for  a  brief  review 
of  the  important  facts  about  the  occupational  levels  of  the  parents 
of  the  children.  Taussig  outlines  five  classes  of  vocations,  largely 
on  the  basis  of  economic  standing.  It  is  not  an  attempt  to  rate 
the  occupations  by  the  amount  of  intelligence  required  to  make  a 
success  of  the  same.  Class  I  includes  the  unskilled  day  laborer; 
II,  the  semi-skilled;  III,  the  "aristocracy  of  the  manual  laboring 
class,"  the  skilled  workmen;  IV,  the  lower  middle  class  ("the 
white-collared  working  class"),  "Here  are  clerks,  bookkeepers, 
salesmen,  small  tradesmen,  foremen,  teachers  of  the  lower  grades," 
etc.  Class  V  constitutes  the  "well-to-do":  "those  who  regard 
themselves  as  the  highest  class."  It  includes  the  professionals, 
the  business  men,  managers  of  industry,  higher  public  officials 
and  the  smaller  propertied  classes  generally.  Taussig  omits  in 
his  classification  those  of  great  wealth,  on  the  assumption  that  they 
do  not  constitute  an  occupational  group.  Other  students  have 
used  somewhat  different  classifications  (16,  54,  84)  but  these  are 
not  especially  different  in  general  outline  from  Taussig's. 

TABLE  XXIII.     PERCENTAGE  OF  PARENTS  OF  PUPILS  IN  EACH  RACIAL 
GROUP  IN  EACH  OF  THE  FIVE   CLASSES  OF  TAUSSIG 

Percentages  in  Class : 
Race  Group  I  II  III  IV  V 

American  S.  J 5.7  16.1  38.0  31.6                  8.6 

Italian    S.    J 52.0  18.9  16.3  12.8 

Portuguese    43.6  19.2  10.2  26.9 

Spanish-Mexican     39.6  30.2  22.6  7.5 

American    Misc 8.9  13.3  48.9  24.4                  5.5 

Italian    Misc 35.1  21.1  10.5  33.3 

Average  for  Americans  7.3  14.7  43.5  28.0                 7.0 

Average    for    Latins        42.6  22.7  14.9  20.1 

Table  XXIII  shows  the  percentage  of  the  parents  of  the  pupils 
in  each  occupational  classification.  The  Latins  distribute  them- 
selves over  the  lower  four  classes.  The  big  bulk  of  them  are  in 
I,  II  and  IV.  The  fourth  class  includes  not  only  small  shop 
keepers,  but  small  land  holders,  and  a  good  many  of  the  Latins  in 
this  clavss  come  under  this  occupation.  There  are  relatively  fewer 
of  them  in  the  skilled  trades.  The  Spanish-Mexicans  run  higher 
in  the  skilled  trades  than  the  Portuguese  or  Italians.  So,  too,  the 
Misc.  Americans  have  10  per  cent  more  in  the  skilled  trades  group 

'*  By  "parents"  is  meant  the  father  if  living,  if  not  then  the  mother ;  if  she  be 
deceased,  then  the  guardian. 

[28] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

than  the  S.  J.  Americans.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Spanish-Mex- 
icans have  but  a  low  percentage  in  class  IV.  The  Portuguese 
run  up  toward  the  American  percentages  in  class  IV,  largely  be- 
cause of  their  property  holdings  at  Half  Moon  and  Milpitas. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  this  array  of  percentages  is  the 
fact  that  none  of  the  Latins  have  parents  who  fall  in  the  upper 
class.  The  new-comers  into  this  country  from  South  Europe  are 
not  from  the  professional  classes.  Wliat  one  or  two  generations 
would  indicate  in  these  same  families  would  be  interesting  to 
know.  The  writer  ventures  a  guess  that  there  will  result  a  realign- 
ment of  groupings,  and  that  these  will  follow  in  general  lines  the 
innate  capacity  of  the  family  stocks.  Those  families  possessing 
good  mental  ability  will  produce  the  offspring  who  will  make  use 
of  the  educational-professional  opportunities  about  them,  in  con- 
trast to  the  lack  of  such  opportunities  for  professional  life  in  the 
present  generations,  which  must  establish  themselves  economically 
in  the  New  "World. 

Is  there  any  relation  between  the  intelligence  of  the  children 
and  the  present  occupational  groupings  of  the  parents?  If  the 
mass  of  immigrants  from  the  Old  World  are  all  at  about  a  common 
economic  level  upon  arrival  here  (the  writer  does  not  believe  they 
are),  has  any  shifting  about  in  occupational  levels  taken  place  in 
this  country  which  result  in  classification  in  groups  more  com- 
mensurate with  their  mental  capacity?  Table  XXIV  indicate  a 
rough  answer  to  this  question  by  showing  the  mean  score  in  alpha 
and  beta  for  the  four  principal  samples  of  racial  groups  in  the 
five-fold  classification.  One  perceives  that  there  is  a  scaling  off 
of  average  score  corresponding  to  the  steps  of  the  scheme  of  classi- 
fication itself.  True,  one  cannot  say  that  such  a  ratio  is  the  cor- 
rect measure  of  mean  intelligence  required  of  the  occupation  in 
any  case.  But  it  is  interesting  that  such  a  gradation  occurs.  The 
overlapping  in  alpha  and  beta  between  classes  is  large.  Even  the 
performance  of  beta  indicates  the  fact,  although  not  so  markedly 
as  alpha.  Other  investigators  have  found  very  similar  relations 
(2,  16,  84). 

TABLE   XXIV.     MEAN   ALPHA   AND   BETA   SCORES   PER   THE   OCCUPATION 
CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE   RACIAL   GROUPS 

Americans    S.J.  Italians    S.J.  Portuguese  Spanish-Mexicans 

Taussig        Mean  Mean         Mean  Mean         Mean  Mean         Mean  Mean 

Scale  ABABABAB 

V  83.35  71.10 

IV  67.30  70.35  40.70  68.71  36.50  63.25  39.00  57.00 

III  54.75  68.66  36.06  59.75  30.50  57.42  43.00  58.88 

n  41.60  64.00  35.92  55.75  29.50  57.62  18.16  52.78 

I  48.40  60.70  19.57  49.12  13.30  42.00  21.67  46.22 

[29] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

It  is  evident  that  the  study  is  dealing  with  pupils  from  families 
of  widely  diverging  social-economic  classes,  yet  even  the  "native" 
American  group  contains  but  few  in  the  very  highest  classification. 
Neither  are  there  many  parents  of  these  children  who  warrant  the 
term  "common,  unskilled  labor,"  The  principal  difference  lies  in 
the  third  and  fourth  classes  of  Americans  as  compared  to  the  first 
and  second  for  the  South  Europeans. 

The  writer  desists  from  entering  at  this  point  into  a  polemic  as 
to  the  case  for  inheritance  versus  environment  as  the  cause  of 
these  differences.  It  is  sufficient  to  note  that  considerable  differ- 
ence does  exist,  and  must  be  taken  into  account  in  interpreting 
the  total  results  of  the  study." 

C.  Results  from  the  Mental  Tests. 

The  general  measures  of  averages  and  dispersion  have  been 
tabulated  into  one  table  (Table  XXV),  but  for  matter  of  con- 
venience the  test  results  had  best  be  dealt  with  under  the  separate 
headings  first.  Analysis  of  the  individual  tests  in  alpha  and  beta 
follow  later. 

i.  The  Army  Alpha  Findings.  Inspection  of  Table  XXV  re- 
veals strikirig  differences  in  the  performance  of  these  groups  of 
12-year-olds  in  the  alpha  test.  The  American  groups  out-reach 
the  best  Latin  average  by  double  the  latter 's  score.  Not  only  are 
the  differences  in  the  means  of  the  group  large,  as  shown  by  Table 
XXVI  of  the  differences  in  the  means  with  the  P.  E.  of  the  differ- 
ences, but  the  variability  of  the  American  groups  is  greater  than 
that  of  the  Latins.  The  Misc.  American  group,  however,  is  not 
so  variable  as  the  S.  J.  American,  although  the  difference  in  the 
means  of  these  two  is  not  large.  Table  XXVI  shows  the  reliability 
of  the  differences  in  terms  of  the  P.  E.  of  the  differences.  So  far 
as  the  Latin  and  the  non-Latin  groups  are  concerned,  the  differ- 
ences are  all  significant  and  the  P.  E.'s  indicate  that  the  sample 
data  are  unselected.    The  differences  between  the  two  American 


"Since  this  was  written  Arlitt  (2)  has  pointed  out  the  possible  effect  that  economic 
status  may  have  on  the  test  results  of  the  children  of  various  races.  The  writer  does  not 
deny  that  economic  status  may  play  a  part,  but  certainly,  as  will  be  shown  subsequently, 
there  is  very  little  correlation  between  Taussig's  classification  and  the  mental  status  of 
the  groups.  Were  the  two  so  casually  related  there  ought,  it  seems,  to  be  considerable 
correlation  between  economic  status  and  results  in  the  tests.  Inspection  of  Table  XXIV 
shows  that  there  is  no  uniformity  in  the  intelligence  level  of  the  children  of  various  race 
groups  in  the  several  economic  classts  ;  throughout,  the  scale  itself  is  so  general  and  the 
lines  of  ability  and  skill  in  reference  to  intelligence  so  poorly  drawn  that  no  generalization 
may  be  drawn  from  it  concerning  the  influence  of  environment  on  mental  ability  as 
shown  in  tests. 

[30] 


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Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

groups  and  the  two  Italian  groups  are  negligible,  as  shown  by  the 
sixe  of  the  P.  E.  of  these  differences  as  compared  with  the  actual 
value. 

TABLE  XXVI.     DIFFERENCES  IN  THE  MEANS  AND  MEDIANS  IN   ALPHA  AND 
BETA  TOTAL  SCORES  WITH  P.   E.'s   OF  DIFFERENCES 

ALPHA  BETA  COMB.  A.  &  B. 

Difference  between  M.  Mdn.  M.  Mdn.  M.  Mdn. 

American  S.  J.  and  Italian  S.  J 32^20  34.29  14.30  14.13  49.90  48.20 

P.    E.    difference    1.45           2.03  .9  1.12  2.18  3.27 

Difference  between 

American   S.   J.   and   Portuguese 33.20  37.21  15.80  16.85  52.90  56.15 

P.    E.    difference    2.06           2.55  1.22  1.63  3.60  4.44 

Difference  between 

American    S.    J.    and    Span.-Mex 34:50  35.54  15.65  15.92  52.50  53.33 

P.    E.    difference    2:07           3.13  1.55  1.68  3.29  4.60 

Difference  between 

Amer.    S.    J.   and   Misc.    Amer 1.80            1.83*  2.35  2.21  2.20  .78 

P.    E.    difference    2.10           2.77  1.10  1.22  2.88  4.11 

Difference  between 

Italian    S.    J.    and    Misc.    Italian 2.-75           3.17  .55t  .00  2.20  4.56 

P.    E.    difference    2.10           2.14  1.44  2.04  3.26  4.62 

*  The  Misc.  American  group  exceeded  the  S.  J.  American. 

t  The  Misc.  Italian  group  exceeded  the  S.  J.  Italian.  All  other  differences  are  in 
favor  of  the  S.  J.  groups — American  or  Italian. 

Table  XXV  gives  the  S.  D,,  Q.  and  D,"  as  measures  of  the 
variability  of  the  groups.  The  P.  E.  for  the  S.  D.  has  been  cal- 
culated and  these  indicate  throughout  the  high  reliability  of  the 
same.  The  S.  J.  American  group  and  the  S.  J.  Italian  groups  are 
throughout  the  most  comparable;  not  only  are  the  samples  larger, 
but  are  probably  much  less  selected.  On  the  other  hand,  con- 
sidering the  size  of  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexican  groups, 
their  measures  of  dispersion,  as  well  as  those  of  C.  T.,  are  very 
reliable. 

One  observes  at  once  that  the  data  really  fall  into  two  groups: 
the  American  children  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  children  of  the 
Latin  immigration  on  the  other.  It  will  be  more  and  more  evident 
that  on  the  whole  the  latter  might  have  been  treated  as  one  group 
without  altering  the  significance  of  the  differences  to  any  extent. 

The  question  naturally  arises:  How  do  these  groups  compare 
with  the  performance  of  the  average  12-year-old  in  the  school  popu- 
lation generally?  This  query  may  be  answered  by  comparing 
various  percentile  grades  with  the  age-norms  for  army  alpha. 
There  are  two  age-norms  for  alpha, — the  first  determined  in  the 
army  itself  (141)  and  the  second  a  combination  of  norms  deter- 
mined separately  by  Kohs  and  Proctor.  The  norms  are  both  stated 
in  terms  of  Stanford-Binet  Mental  Age.  In  the  following  table 
the  pertinent  comparisons  are  made: 


■•Cf:    (58)   for  discussion  of  D. 

[32] 


ii 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

TABLE    XXVII.     STANDING    OF    12-YEAR-OLDS    WHEN    COMPARED    TO    THE 
MENTAL  AGE   NORMS   FOR  THE  ARMY  ALPHA  TEST" 

Upper  75  %  Upper  50  %  Upper  25  % 

Exceeds  MA  Exceeds  MA  Exceeds  MA 

for  the  for  the  for  the 

K-P        Array  K-P        Army  K-P        Army 

Race    Group  Norms     Norms       Norms     Norms       Norms     Norma 

American    S.    J 11-8  12-6  12-8  13-9  14-4  15-3 

Italian   S.   J 9-8  10-0  10-8  11-6  11-9  12-6 

PortuRuese     9-6  9-9  10-6  11-3  11-6  12-4 

Spanish-Mexican    9-6  9-9  10-6  11-3  11-6  12-4 

Italian    Misc 9-9  10-4  10-6  11-3  11-0  12-0 

American    Misc 11-6  12-4  13-0  14-0  14-0  15-0 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  American  group  is  practically  normal 
for  its  age,  or  slightly  in  excess,  whereas  the  Latin  groups  all  fall 
from  one  to  two  years  below.  On  the  average  about  25  per  cent 
of  the  Latins  exceed  the  norm  for  their  chronological  age.  Inspec- 
tion of  this  table  reveals  the  fact  that  the  norms  for  the  army  were 
slightly  lower  than  those  for  the  school  children  calculated  by  Kohs 
and  Proctor.  The  Latin  groups  compare  somewhat  more  favorably 
with  the  Americans  when  measured  against  the  army  norms.  It 
is  likely,  especially  in  the  ages  13  and  above,  that  both  Kohs  and 
Proctor  were  working  with  rather  selected  samples,  since  so  many 
boys,  at  least,  in  these  ages  are  neither  in  the  elementary  nor  the 
high  schools.  And  it  is  well-known  that,  on  the  whole,  the  men- 
tally retarded  are  the  first  to  withdraw  from  school. 

It  is  once  more  evident  that  the  Latin  groups  do  not  reach  the 
normal  performance  that  the  American  groups  do.  In  grade  loca- 
tion they  are  one  to  two  years  behind  their  competitors,  in  school 
work  likewise,  in  teachers'  estimates  of  their  intelligence  also, 
and  here  in  the  actual  findings  of  the  tests,  much  the  same  thing 
is  shown. 

a.  The  Army  Beta  Results.  The  second  section  of  Table  XXV 
gives  a  summary  of  the  principal  measures  of  averages  and  of  dis- 
persion for  the  beta  tests.  The  differences  in  the  measures  of 
C.  T.  are  again  in  favor  of  the  American  groups.  While  the  dif- 
ferences in  means  are  not  so  great  as  with  alpha,  it  must  be  recalled 
that  the  score-range  of  beta  is  about  half  that  of  alpha.  Further, 
as  will  be  noted  later,  there  are  probably  differences  in  the  nature 
of  the  two  tests  that  need  be  taken  into  account  in  interpreting  the 
differences.  The  P.  E.'s  of  the  means  and  of  the  medians  show 
that  these  are  very  stable  measures  for  this  age-group  in  terms 

"  Estimated  from  percentiles.  Fractions  less  than  %  year  ignored.  K-P  refers  to 
Kohs-Proctor.  These  latter  norms  were  worked  out  by  W.  M.  Proctor  and  S.  C.  Koha 
at  Stanford  during  the  year  1918-19.  These  norms  are  obtainable  from  Dr.  Terman  at 
Stanford. 

[33] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

of  the  test.  While  the  P.  E.'s  for  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish- 
Mexican  children  are  larger,  they  nevertheless  are  so  small  as  com- 
pared to  the  C.  T.  that  the  latter  are  within  narrow  limits  the  true 
measures.  The  size  of  the  sample  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
greater  P.  E,  with  these  two  groups,  for  the  P.  E.  of  the  Misc. 
American  and  Misc.  Italian  groups  is  relatively  the  same  as  that 
for  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexican  classes.  Table  XXVI 
shows  the  differences  in  the  means  of  the  beta  results,  with  the 
P.  E.'s  of  the  differences.  These  serve  as  another  check  upon  the 
extent  to  which  the  observed  differences  fall  within  the  true  proba- 
bilities. The  means  seem  a  trifle  better  measure  of  C.  T.  and  of 
dift'erence  than  the  medians,  but  on  the  whole,  the  median  beta  is 
somewhat  more  stable  as  a  measure  of  C.  T.  for  this  test  than  is 
the  median  alpha  for  alpha.  In  beta,  as  in  alpha,  the  differences 
between  the  S.  J.  American  and  the  Misc.  American  groups  is 
insignificant.  For  the  two  Italian  groups,  the  medians  for  beta 
coincide. 

Considering  the  matter  of  variability^  the  results  of  beta  indi- 
cate that  the  American  groups  are  not  so  variable  as  the  Latins. 
The  S.  J.  Americans  in  particular  seem  to  be  less  variable  than 
the  Misc.  Americans,  the  latter  coming  within  practically  the 
same  S.  D.  as  the  Misc.  Italians.  The  S.  D.,  the  Q.  and  the  D.  all 
indicate  that  the  S.  J.  American  group  is  much  more  homogeneous 
in  performance  in  the  beta  test  than  in  the  alpha.  Reasons  for 
this  will  appear  subsequently.  It  may  be  said  that  the  difference 
is  not  extreme,  not  nearly  so  much  so  as  is  the  comparative  vari- 
ability of  the  Latins  and  the  non-Latins  in  alpha. 

There  are  no  norms  available  of  the  beta  applied  to  school 
children,  but  the  following  table  gives  the  comparison  with  the 
mental  age  ratings  for  beta  in  the  army : 


TABLE   XXVin.     STANDING   OF    12-YEAR-OLDS    WHEN    COMPARED    TO    THE 
MENTAL  AGE   NORMS   FOR  THE   ARMY  BETA   TEST  '^ 

Upper  75%  Upper  50%  Upper  25% 

Exceeds  the  Exceeds  the  Exceeds  the 

Race   Group  MA  Norm  of  Army     MA  Norm  of  Army     MA  Norm  of  Army 

American    S.    J 12-8  13-8  14-6 

Italian    S.   J 11-4  12-0  13-4 

Portuguese   11-0  12-0  13-0 

Spanish-Mexican    11-3  12-0  13-3 

Italian     Misc 11-4  12-0  13-4 

American    Misc 12-6  13-6  14-4 


"  Estimated    from    array    of    percentiles.     Fractions    less    than    %    year    MA    ignored. 
Cf:    (141,  p.   133). 


[34] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Here  it  appears  that  compared  with  the  men  in  the  army  from 
whom  the  beta  norms  were  determined,  the  Latin  groups  are  prac- 
tically normal  for  their  chronological  age  in  the  test  performance. 
The  American  groups,  however,  again  outstrip  them  by  a  year 
and  a  half,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  were  norms  worked 
out  on  the  average  American  school  population  they  would  exceed 
the  norms  for  the  army  groups  as  do  similar  school  norms  for 
alpha.  It  is  furthermore  difficult  to  tell  whether  the  beta  in  the 
low  scores  is  comparable  to  the  Binet.  There  is  some  evidence 
that  it  is  not  so  reliable  when  compared  to  Stanford-Binet  as  the 
alpha.'"  It  is  also  of  little  value  in  discriminating  differences  in 
mental  levels  in  the  upper  ranges  of  intelligence.  Were  the  test 
better  able  to  differentiate  general  intelligence  above  the  12-year 
norm,  the  American  groups  would  in  all  likelihood  outstrip  the 
Latins  more  than  they  did.  Still  further,  these  norms  are  not 
corrected  for  reliability  and  the  reliability  coefficient  of  the  beta 
is  somewhat  less  than  that  of  alpha.  At  any  rate,  the  important 
feature  is  the  superiority  of  the  Americans  even  in  this  test  in 
which  they  are  at  a  disadvantage. 

Hi.  The  Combined  Army  Alpha  and  Beta  Residts.  The  last 
section  of  Table  XXV  shows  the  averages  and  measures  of  varia- 
bility for  the  children  of  the  six  groups  when  alpha  and  beta 
scores  are  combined.  While  this,  in  a  sense,  is  a  mere  summation 
of  the  two  tests,  it  serves  as  a  better  measure  of  the  mental  per- 
formance of  the  groups  than  either  test  singly.  Although  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  for  practical  school  purposes  a  test  need 
be  as  long  as  the  combined  alpha  and  beta,  or  that  the  half  of  it 
need  be  performance,  yet  it  is  true  that  the  two  scales  together 
give  a  little  more  complete  "  clinical''  picture  of  the  behavior  of 
the  groups  in  responding  to  the  tests.  Of  course,  with  certain 
limitations  on  the  efficacy  of  the  tests, — the  alpha  being  somewhat 
too  difficult  for  the  12-year-old  Latins  in  the  lower  grades,  and 
the  beta  not  discriminating  enough  for  the  non-Latins  in  the  upper 
grades, — it  follows  that  the  combination  of  the  two  tends  to  wipe 
out  this  difference,  and  make  the  Latin  and  the  non-Latin  groups 
somewhat  nearer  together. 

The  reliability  of  the  means  and  of  the  medians  for  the  com- " 
bined  tests  is  very  high.     These  two  measures  of  C.  T.  are  much 
more  nearly  equal  than  they  were  for  alpha  or  beta  alone.     This 

"  (73)   pt.  H:  ch.  7:  pp.  386,  387-8,  394-5. 

[35] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

may  be  another  way  of  noting  the  general  smoothing  of  the  diver- 
gence due  to  the  summation  of  the  two  batteries  of  tests.  Table 
XXVI  indicates  the  comparative  differences  in  means  and  medians. 
The  Italians  come  slightly  nearer  the  Americans  than  the  other 
two  Latin  groups,  but  as  in  other  measures  the  three  Latin  classes 
are  for  all  practical  purposes  on  much  the  same  level  of  perform- 
ance. 

In  summary  of  the  findings  on  the  differences  in  the  C.  T.  of 
these  groups  with  these  tests,  one  notes  that  the  differences  in  the 
means  of  the  alpha  in  the  case  of  the  S.  J.  Italians  and  the  S.  J. 
Americans  is  roughly  one-seventh  of  the  total  range  of  the  test, 
the  differences  in  these  groups  for  beta  is  one-eighth  of  the  range 
for  the  beta  test,  and  in  the  case  of  the  two  tests  combined  as  one 
battery  (using  the  same  scoring  as  when  separate)  the  difference 
is  between  one-seventh  and  one-eighth  of  the  range  of  the  com- 
bined batteries.  The  differences  between  the  American  groups 
and  the  other  two  Latin  groups  is  nearly  the  same,  being  slightly 
greater  for  the  Portuguese  and  the  Spanish-Mexican  when  com- 
pared with  the  S.  J.  Americans :  about  one-sixth  of  the  range  for 
alpha,  one-eighth  for  beta,  and  one-sixth  for  combined  alpha  and 
beta. 

Recalling  that  the  difference  in  the  C.  T.  of  the  teachers'  esti- 
mates of  school  work  and  of  intelligence  were  between  one-sixth 
and  one-eighth  of  the  range  of  the  scales  used,  and  likewise  for 
the  difference  in  grade  location,  one  must  conclude  that  the  whole 
evidence  points  to  significant  differences  in  these  groups  by  about 
the  amounts  found  in  these  several  measures  of  educability  and 
mentality. 

D.  The  Measurement  of  Overlapping. 

Not  only  are  the  differences  in  C.  T.  important  but  the  total 
amount  t>f  overlapping  in  the  distribution  of  scores  of  the  several 
groups  is  even  more  so.  Especially  in  treating  racial  differences 
and  in  the  determination  of  the  proper  classification  of  pupils  in 
school  and  analogous  situations,  it  is  important  to  know  to  what 
extent  any  given  measure  in  one  distribution  reaches  or  exceeds 
or  is  identical  with  a  similar  measure  in  another  distribution.  The 
fact  of  overlapping  in  school  ability  in  pupils  has  been  investigated 
(63),  but  only  recently  has  Kelley  (57)  shown  that  the  true  over- 
lapping can  only  be  determined  when  the  reliability  of  one's  meas- 
ures is  known, 

[36] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

The  coefficient  of  reliability  determined  by  using  Brown's 
formula "  for  alpha  was  .91,  the  same  for  beta  was  .81.  Using 
Kelley's  formula,  which  requires  the  coefficients  of  reliability,  the 
measures  of  true  overlapping  were  determined.  Table  XXIX 
shows  the  extent  of  overlapping,  noting  first  the  percentage  of 
Latins  that  exceed  the  lower  quartile,  the  median,  and  the  upper 
quartile  of  the  S.  J.  American  group;  second  is  shown  the  per- 

GRAPH  I.     CURVE  OF   OVERLAPPING  ON  ALPHA  SCORES— Actual  Data. 


r 

nw 

tMTI! 

.t  Va 

.UL5 

25i 
90 

- 

t-f 

^^^^ 

■^ 

.^ 

^ 

— 

?0 

^ 

/ 

/ 

75. 
70 

- 

A 

f 

/ 

faO 

/ 

/ 

f 

50 

//  / 

/ 

40 

/ 

'/ 

/ 

io 

// 

/ 

t5 

A 

^' 

/ 

b 

10 

// 

/ 

/ 

5- 

it 

^'* 

y 

0 

10 

ta 

30 

40 

50 

5 

to 

:ORE 

70 
VAL 

80 
)L5 

90 

IOC 

no 

izo 

Legend : 


Portuguese. 
S.    J.   Italian. 
Spanish-Mexican. 
S.   J.  American. 


Data  from  Table  XXV. 


*•  Brown'a  formula :  Coeff.  of  rel. 


2r 


is  well  known    (cf:  20). 


1-I-r 

The  determination  of  the  reliability  of  the  tests  by  this  method  was  somew^hat  diffi- 
cult. Two  comparable  forms  of  alpha  were  not  given  to  the  same  children,  and  there 
was  but  one  form  of  beta.  Two  methods  were  open  :  one  was  to  select  alternative  items 
in  the  various  tests  of  A  and  B  tests,  but  at  Dr.  Kelley's  suggestion  this  method  was 
abandoned.  In  place  of  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  split  each  battery  into  two  com- 
parable halves  and  correlate  one  half  against  the  other.  Two  approaches  in  the  choice  of 
comparable  halves  was  used:  (1)  It  is  assumed  in  educational  psychology  that  two  tests 
that  correlate  very  highly  with  each  other  are  testing  the  same  functions.  Those  tests 
that  inter-correlated  most  highly  were  placed  in  separate  halves  of  the  tests  to  be  corre- 
lated by  Brown's  formula.  As  a  check  upon  this  the  judgments  of  ten  competent 
psychologists  from  the  largest  universities  of  the  country  as  to  which  tests  tended  to 
teat  the  same  mental  functions  were  averaged  and  on  the  basis  of  the  tendency  of  these 
averages  to  approach  each  other  in  magnitude,  that  is,  in  terms  of  the  paired  tests  (being 
scaled  oc  as  like  or  unlike  in  testing  functions,  in  terms  of  a  scale),  they  were  put  into 
the  separate  compartments.  The  agreement  between  the  reuslts  from  this  mathod  and 
the  other  was  very  striking.  In  case  of  doubt  the  army  inter-correlations  were  taken  as 
more  reliable.  The  tests  finally  selected  were  for  alpha:  teste  1,  2,  5,  7  to  be  correlated 
against  3,  4,  6,  8.     In  Beta :  tests  1,  2,  3,  5  against  4,  6,  7. 

The  material  on  judgments  of  the  psychologists  was  secured  from  the  personal  files 
of  Dr.  Tennan.     The  army  data  was  from  the  Memoirs   (73,  p.  634). 

[37] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

centage  of  S.  J.  American  scores  exceeding  the  three  quartiles  for 
the  various  Latin  groups.  In  order  to  indicate  the  extent  to 
which  the  correction  by  Kelley's  formula  differs  from  the  over- 
lapping in  the  actual  measures,  the  percentages  exceeding  the  same 
quartiles  are  given  when  computed  from  the  actual  distribution. 

TABLE  XXIX  (A).  PERCENTAGE  OF  THE  FOLLOWING  RACIAL  GROUPS 
EXCEEDING  THE  S.  J.  AMERICANS— ACTUAL  AND  TRUE  OVERLAPPING 

ALPHA    TESTS 

Vf  Exceed.  %  Exceed.  <"/c  Exceed. 

Amer.  Ql  Amer.  Mdn.  Amer.  Q3 

Race    Group  (Actual)      (True)       (Actual)      (True)     (Actual)    (True)" 

Italian    S.    J 24.50  22.66  7.00  4.95  1.00  .55 

Portuguese     22.50  23.88  10.00  6.55  2.00  1.07 

Spanish-Mexican    21.50  17.36  6.80  2.81  .75  .20 

American   Misc 74.22  47.21  21.19 

BETA    TESTS 

Italian   S.   J 33.40  31.21  18.00  16.11  8.25  6.94 

Portuguese     29.00  25.46  13.75  11.51  4.15  4.09 

Spanish-Mexican    30.40  27.76  15.50  13.79  6.40  5.59 

American   Misc 65.17  42.47  22.06 

COMBINED   ALPHA   AND  EETA 

Italian    S.    J 27.80  8.50  1.00 

Portuguese     26.00  11.30  3.50 

Spanish-Mexican    21.35  7.25  1.75 


(B)    LIKE    PERCENTAGE    OF    AMERICANS    EXCEEDING    THESE    MEASURES    IN 

THE   SOUTH   EUROPEANS 

ALPHA    TEST 

Q  1  Mdn.  Q  3 

Italian    S.    J 97.00  95.91  90.00  89.25  72.75  76.73 

Portuguese     98.00  95.99  92.00  87.97  76.25  78.81 

Spanish-Mexican    98.00  96.33  90.50  90.83  76.25  80.51 

BETA    TEST 

Italian    S.    J 96.75  98.87  86.25  91.15  62.00  66.64 

Portuguese     97.75  99.01  89.00  93.19  60.75  74.22 

Spanish-Mexican    77.00  99.18  90.00  93.06  66.00  71.23 

COMBINED    ALPHA    AND    BETA 

Italian    S.    J 98.25  90.00  71.55 

Portuguese     98.75  93.25  71.25 

Spanish-Mexican    98.25  92.25  79.00 


Graphs  I,  II  and  III  show  the  overlapping  of  the  actual  per- 
centile grades  in  the  several  groups,  determined  graphically." 
Table  XXIX  gives  the  true  overlapping  determined  by  the  use  of 
Kelley's  formula.  The  first  part  of  this  tabulation  shows  the  per- 
centage of  each  of  the  three  groups,  S.  J.  Italians,  Portuguese,  and 
Spanish-Mexican,  exceeding  the  medians,  and  the  upper  and  lower 
quartiles  of  the  S.  J.  American.  The  Misc.  Italians  are  compared 
with  the  S.  J.  Italians  to  indicate  the  likeness  of  these  two  groups 
to  each  other.     The  same  is  done  for  the  Misc.  Americans  and  the 


"  "Actual"  overlapping  from  data  at  found.  "True"  camputed  using  coefficients  of 
reliability  of  alpha  and  of  beta.  The  Misc.  American  group  was  not  used  in  getting 
actual  data.     The  "actual"  overlapping  was  determined  graphically.     Of:  Bowley    (14). 


[38] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

S.  J.  Americans.  It  is  evident  that  the  true  overlapping  is  less 
than  that  revealed  by  the  actual  results.  Only  23  per  cent  of  the 
S.  J.  Italians  exceed  the  lower  quartile  of  the  S.  J.  Americans  in 
alpha,  but  24  per  cent  of  the  Portuguese  and  slightly  over  17  per 
cent  of  the  Spanish-Mexicans.  The  overlapping  of  the  median  is 
between  5  and  6  per  cent  for  the  first  two  groups  and  but  2.81  per 
cent  for  the  last.  And  but  1  per  cent  of  the  Italians  exceed  the 
point  reached  and  exceeded  by  the  upper  25  per  cent  of  S.  J. 
American  children.  The  Portuguese  fare  a  bit  better  in  this  com- 
parison  but  the  Spanish-Mexicans  worse. 


GRAPH   II.     CURVE    OF    OVERLAPPING    ON    BETA   SCORES— Actual    Data. 


1 

1 

1       ! 

i     !     M 

pLSCl 

iTILt  \ALULS 

1 

i 
1 

— 

i       1 
1       i       1 

' 

^ 

^- 

"*' 

^" 

1 

50 

1       1 
i 
1       1 

TO 

- 

j    I       y6r 

/■           i 

40 

r/  1 

'     1 

/' 

i       i 

1       ^        1 

10 

/'/ 

y 

f 

40 

/ 

/ 

JO 

^ 

^ 

/ 

IS 

2jO 

- 

.; 

^ 

V 

K 

i 
1 

lO 

,^> 

/- 

,   ^ 

/ 

I 

I 
t 

S 
o 

- 

!^ 

^ 

_ 

-'^ 

.'' 

1 

1 

i 
1 

Zo 

a 

ja 

j5 

40 

♦5 

5COR 

55 

L    VA 

•bO 

ti 

TO 

75 

1 

65 

i 
1 

1 

(Legend:  as  in  Graph  I) 

The  overlapping  in  beta  examination,  while  not  nearly  so 
marked  as  in  the  case  of  alpha,  is  still  significant.  The  S.  J.  Italian 
group  as  elsewhere  is  nearer  the  S.  J.  American  group  in  every 
case,  while  the  Spanish-Mexicans  do  a  little  better  with  beta  than 
the  Portuguese.  The  differences  between  the  Latin  groups  is  in 
no  case  marked.  But  16  per  cent  of  the  S.  J.  Italians  exceed  the 
median  score  of  the  S.  J.  Americans,  and  hardly  7  per  cent  exceed 
the  upper  quartile.  With  the  other  Latin  groups  still  less  favor- 
ably situated  in  reference  to  the  "native"  American  groups,  there 
can  be  little  question  of  great  differences  in  mental  abilities  of 
the  groups. 

[39] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 


GRAPH  III. 


CURVE   OF   OVERLAPPING   ON   COMBINED   ALPHA   AND 
BETA    SCORES— Actual    Data. 


'            '            '            :            !            1 

i      1      1            !      1 

1 

1 ■ 

PtRC 

;r<TILl 

VAUJt 

i 

1       i       ! 

95j 
90 

- 

\---:i^i^\     '       i-^ 

60 

..•'•;> 

^j           i 

U^ 

X 

75 
TO 

- 

y 

/'    i 

fcO 

50 

/ 

:^/ 

r 

/ 

/ 

40 

/, 

(^ 

/ 

30 

^ 

10 

- 

y 

y 

10 

^ 

"1 

r 

_• 

/' 

-§- 

1 — 

r ^ 

^-- 

_.« 

--' 

rj 

0 

W 

30 

40 

50 

to 

7C 

ec 
5coi 

90 

L     V/ 

100 

LULi 

llO 

150 

KO 

00 

MA 

170 

IBC 

I90 

(Legend:  as  in  Graph  I) 


The  actual  overlapping  of  the  results,  using  the  two  tests,  alpha 
and  beta,  together  as  one  combined  rating  is  practically  mid-way 
between  the  overlapping  in  the  two  separate  batteries  of  tests,  but 
more  nearly  comparable  to  that  in  alpha  than  in  beta. 

For  comparative  purposes  the  overlapping  of  the  Misc.  Ameri- 
can group  on  the  S.  J.  American  group  is  given.  The  S.  J.  Ameri- 
cans have  a  slight  advantage  but  nothing  significant.  The 
importance  in  fact  of  the  nearness  of  these  two  groups  of  Ameri- 
cans is  simply  to  prove  that  the  San  Jose  children  of  North 
European  stock  are  not  unlike  other  "native"  American  stocks  in 
neighboring  California  localities.  The  Misc.  Italians  compared 
with  the  S.  J.  Italians  show  that  the  former  are  slightly  better  in 
the  lower  half  of  the  scores,  but  in  the  beta  that  the  latter  have 
some  advantage  in  the  upper  ranges  of  the  test  results.  In  the 
alpha,  the  S.  J.  Italians  excel  their  countrymen  outside  San  Jose 
about  as  much  as  the  S.  J.  Americans  do  the  Misc.  Americans.  In 
the  alpha  the  S.  J.  Italians  are  slightly  more  variable,  but  in  beta 
the  two  groups  are  very  nearly  identical.  With  the  Americans 
the  group  outside  San  Jose  is  a  trifle  more  variable  than  those 
from  San  Jose  in  alpha  and  beta  both,  although  the  latter  group 
has  a  somewhat  higher  C.  T. 

[40] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

E.  An  Analysis  of  the  Individual  Alpha  and  Beta  Tests. 

i.  The  Alpha  Tests.  No  attempt  will  be  made  here  to  analyze 
the  statistical  problem  of  the  make-up  of  the  battery  of  tests  that 
comprise  alpha.  This  has  been  done  elsewhere  (73,  p.  573ff.). 
Rather  a  brief  review  will  be  made  of  the  standing  of  the  racial 
groups  in  the  separate  tests,  and  then  a  presentation  of  a  profile 
based  on  the  average  performance  of  each  group  in  each  test. 


TABLE  XXX.     THE  MEAN  AND  MEASURES  OF  DISPERSION  OF  THE  SEPARATE 
TESTS  IN  ALPHA  AND  BETA    (Four   Principal  Samples) 

%  M  is  %  M  is 

of         %  of         % 

S  D    P  E  Max.    Zero  S  D    P  E  Max.    Zero 

Alpha  M     SDm    PEm  dist     dist  Score  Scores       Beta   M     SDm    PEm  dist     dist  Score  Scores 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 


5.45 
5.80 
6.45 
7.62 
6.64 
5.65 
8.46 
12.87 


.14 

.15 
.16 
.19 
.25 
.18 
.08 
.07 


.09 
.10 
.11 
.13 
.17 
.12 
.05 
.05 


2.55 
2.59 
2.87 
3.39 
4.45 
3.21 
1.47 
1.21 


1.72 
1.75 
1.94 
2.29 
3.00 
2.17 
.99 
.72 


45.41 
29.00 
40.31 
19.05 
27.65 
28.25 
21.15 
32.18 


1.3 
1.0 
6.4 
19.1 
10.5 
7.3 
8.6 
1.3 


I 
II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 


3.34 

7.15 

9.94 

13.31 

13.42 

12.63 

5.23 


.05 
.19 
.09 
.05 
.05 
.18 
.14 


.03 
.13 
.06 
.03 
.03 
.12 
.09 


.88 
3.19 
1.62 
.80 
.89 
3.12 
2.44 


.59 
2.15 
1.09 
.54 
.60 
2.10 
1.65 


68.80 
44.68 
82.83 
44.36 
53.68 
63.15 
52.30 


.7 
1.9 
0 
0 
.7 
0 
1.6 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 


2.66 
3.48 
3.31 
2.61 
3.20 
2.74 
4.18 
5.57 


.16 
.18 
.20 
.27 
.24 
.19 
.35 
.37 


11     2.20     1.48  22.16  20.9 


12 
14 
18 
16 
13 
24 
25 


2.49 
2.75 
3.77 
3.28 
2.64 
4.80 
5.05 


1.68 
1.85 
2.54 
2.12 
1.'78 
3.24 
3.41 


17.40 
20.68 
6.52 
13.33 
13.70 
10.45 
13.92 


11.4 
22.5 
48.1 
33.5 
31.4 
30.3 
19.3 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 


2.73 

5.04 

8.53 

12.05 

14.23 

8.88 
3.08 


.09 
.29 
.18 
.18 
.34 
.25 
.16 


.06 
.20 
.12 
.12 
.23 
.17 
.11 


1.28 
3.87 
2.43 
2.50 
4.80 
3.42 
2.16 


.86 
2.61 
1.64 
1.69 
3.24 
2.31 
1.36 


54.60 
31.50 
71.06 
40.16 
56.92 
44.40 
30.80 


8.8 

14.1 

.6 

4.7 

2.6 

.5 

17.2 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 


2.39 
2.89 
2.14 
1.82 
3.08 
3.13 
6.43 
6.01 


.27 
.28 
.33 
.41 
.40 
.34 
.66 
.63 


.18 
.19 
.22 
.28 
.27 
.23 
.44 
.42 


2.35 
2.41 
2.79 
3.56 
3.49 
2.87 
5.73 
5.47 


1.59 
1.63 
1.88 
1.73 
2.35 
1.94 
3.86 
3.69 


19.91 
14.45 
13.37 
4.50 
12.83 
15.65 
16.07 
15.02 


26.3 
6.6 
39.4 
67.1 
32.9 
23.6 
34.2 
17.1 


I     3.15       .13       .09     1.15       .78  63.00     5.4 
II     4.73       .36       .24     3.06     2.06  29.56     5.4 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 


7.91 

10.89 

13.24 

9.35 

2.92 


.33 
.34 
.38 
.36 
.23 


.15 
.23 
.39 
.24 
.15 


2.83 
2.90 
4.96 
3.12 
1.94 


1.61 
1.96 
3.35 
2.10 
1.31 


65.91 
36.30 
52.56 
46.75 
29.20 


2.7 
5.4 
2.7 
2.7 
12.1 


z 

■< 
u 

X 

u 
S 

I 

X 
m 

Z 

< 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 


2.45 
2.78 
2.92 
2.45 
2.94 
3.20 
3.75 
5.33 


.27 
.29 
.31 
.51 
.47 
.37 
.71 
.63 


.18 
.19 
.21 
.34 
.32 
.25 
.48 
.43 


1.93 
2.05 
2.23 
3.64 
3.35 
2.64 
5.04 
4.52 


1.30 
1.38 
1.50 
2.46 
2.26 
1.78 
3.40 
3.05 


20.31  21.5 
13.90  13.7 
18.25  29.4 

6.12  58.8 
12.25  41.1 
16.00 

9.37 
13.32 


I     3.04       .15 


19.6 
41.1 
17.6 


II     5.89 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 


8.42 
11.07 
12.28 
10.72 

2.83 


.43 

.32 
.32 
.66 
.54 
.30 


.10     1.06       .71  60.80     1.9 
.29     3.15     2.12  36.81     3.8 


.22 
.22 
.45 
.36 
.20 


2.33 
2.34 

4.84 
3.84 
2.18 


1.57 
1.58 
3.26 
2.59 
1.47 


70.16 
36.90 
49.12 
53.60 
28.30 


1.9 

3.8 

3.8 

0 

13.2 


Table  XXX  summarizes  the  principal  data  on  the  averages 
and  measures  of  dispersion  for  the  individual  tests  jn  the  four 
principal  groups."  There  are  given  the  means  of  each  test,  with 
the  S.  D.  and  P.  E.  of  the  means  (as  an  indication  of  their  relia- 
bility), and  also  the  S.  D.  and  P.E.  of  the  distribution  of  scores 
in  each  test.  The  S.  J.  American  group  did  decidedly  better 
throughout  the  entire  eight  tests.  Tests  IV  and  V  proved  particu- 
larly difficult  for  the  Latin  groups.     The  S.  D.'s  for  each  of  the 


"  The  Misc.  American  and  Misc.  Italian  groups  are  so  nearly  like  the  larger  samples 
of  these  same  racial  groups  that  they  are  omitted  here. 


[41] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Latin  groups  indicate  that  the  spread  of  the  test  results  downward 

ran  apparently  to  negative  scores.     The  facts  are  these:     Column 

8  of  the  table  gives  the  percentage  of  zero  scores  in  each  test.     It 

is  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  amount  of  zero  grades  is  very  high  for 

these  two  tests  for  all  the  Latin  groups.     In  computing  the  means, 

and  measures  of  dispersion,  zero  scores  are  counted  as  a  class  in 

the  arrays,  and  hence  are  actually  considered  as  units  on  the  scale. 

As  is  pointed  out  in  the  treatise  on  the  statistical  interpretation  of 

the  army  data  on  alpha  and  beta  (73,  p.  622)  : 

The  alpha  examination  itself  is  not  a  homogeneous  scale,  but  a  composite 
of  eight  short  scales,  each  much  more  nearly  homogeneous  than  the  composite 
total  alpha.  .  .  .  Certain  of  its  component  tests  are  very  much  more  diflS- 
cult  than  others,  so  that  examinees  of  less  than  average  intelligence  do  not  in 
general  register  their  ability  in  all  of  the  tests.  .  .  .  [Since  the  time 
allowed  is  constant  for  all,  some  fail  to  score  at  all  in  certain  tests,  whereas 
more  time  might  give  them  a  small  score]  ...  It  follows  from  what  has 
just  been  stated  that  subjects  who  are  able  to  score  in  all  of  the  alpha  tests 
obtain  total  scores  that  are  not  comparable  with  the  total  scores  earned  by  indi- 
viduals who  failed  in  some  of  the  tests.  The  reason  for  this  difference  is  that 
in  obtaining  an  individual 's  total  score  by  adding  together  the  scores  in  each 
test,  scores  of  0  are  treated  arithmetically  the  saine  as  other  scores.  There  are 
psychological  reasons,  however,  why  0  as  a  score  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  point 
on  a  linear  scale,  although  other  scores  can  be  so  regarded.  This  distinction 
between  the  mathematical  zero  and  "psychological"  zero  is  an  important  one, 
for  failure  to  recognize  it  is  a  serious  pitfall  in  the  statistical  analysis  of 
psychological  data.  Zero  as  a  test  score  means  some  unmeasured  amount  of 
ability  that  is  less  than  the  amount  required  to  earn  a  score  of  one  point. 
Thus,  if  a  high  degree  of  ability  is  necessary  to  earn  a  score  of  one  point  in  a 
certain  test,  it  is  obvious  that  the  range  of  ability  covered  by  the  zero  scores  is 
a  very  wide  one,  although  the  rangfes  corresponding  to  scores  of  one  point,  two 
points,  etc.,  may  be  very  short.  A  f-ore  of  zfro  therefore  does  not  mean  no 
ability  at  all;  it  does  not  mean  the  point  of  discontinuance  of  the  thing  meas- 
ured ;  it  means  the  point  of  discontinuance  of  the  instrument  of  measurement, — 
the  test. 

It  may  be  said,  then,  had  the  alpha  test  been  more  adequate 
for  the  testing  of  mentality  of  unselected  12-year-old  children, 
even  of  Latin  stock,  the  total  scores  would  have  been  correspond- 
ingly higher,  since  the  percentage  of  zero  scores  in  tests  IV  and  V, 
had  they  been  easier,  i.  e.,  more  adequate  to  the  mentality  of  the 
groups,  would  have  been  relatively  less. 

It  may  be  imagined  at  first  glance  that  since  these  two  tests 
are  particularly  language  tests,  the  Latin  groups  were  greatly 
handicapped  by  them.  While  this  may  be  so,  in  part,  the  fact 
that  nearly  20  per  cent  of  the  Americans  scored  zero  on  test  IV 
and  over  10  per  cent,  zero  on  test  V,  points  to  the  alternative 
explanation,  that  the  test  is  really  too  difficult  for  the  12-year-olds, 
even  of  normal  intelligence."     Test  VII,  which  also  gave  a  con- 


"  Tests   IV,   V,   VI   proved   too  difficult    (as   measured  by   percentage  of   zero   grades) 
for  the  draftees  and  enlisted  men  in  the  army.     Cf:  73,  pt.  Ill:  Ch.  2:  624,  626. 


[42] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

siderable  percentage  of  zero  scores  for  the  groups,  is  likewise  a 
language  test  but  the  Latins  did  better  with  it  because  it  permits 
of  differential  making  of  scores  by  the  pupils.  In  short,  however, 
the  penalization  of  the  total  score  for  the  Latins  as  compared  to 
the  non-Latins  was  a  matter  of  relative  degree.  We  may  take  it 
that  this  relative  degree  is  expressed  in  terms  of  the  difference  in 
the  intelligence  quotients  of  the  two  groups. 

In  regard,  then,  to  the  S.  D. 's  of  the  distributions  in  tests  IV, 
V  and  VII,  it  is  clear  that  they  are  larger  than  the  means  simply 
because  their  dispersion  is  represented  by  a  particular  portion  of 
the  zero  scores  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale.  For  the  Spanish- 
Mexican  group,  test  VI  also  proved  considerably  too  difficult.  In 
this  case,  language  explanation  apparently  did  not  enter  in,  for 
the  other  Latins  did  decidedly  better  in  VI.  It  must  have  been  a 
lack  of  capacity. 

GRAPH   IV.     PROFILES    SHOWING    THE    PERCENTAGE    WHICH    THE    MEAN    OF 
EACH  TEST  IS  OF  THE   MAXIMUM  POSSIBLE  SCORE  IN   EACH 

TEST   FOR   ALPHA 


JO 

;ntw 

L 

-10 

\ 

,< 

\ 

'\ 

/ 

V 

30 

/ 

\ 
\ 

/ 

> 

I 
1 

/ 

-- - 

1 

\, 

/ 

/ 

Z-O 

£ 

>•> 

.^ 

K 

\ 
\ 

f 

/ 

^x 

:::■ 

^>'" 

\ 

\ 

r 

ro 

"i 

^""l—^^'^ 

k  1    L^ 

k^ 

— — 

^^^-. 

■;^ 

x%^ 

^ 

■> 

r'' 

0 

_  1  ^ 

I 

n 

a 

j 

Y 

H 

im 

M 

ALi 

f  A    ' 

-L3T 

5 

1 
1 

1 

I 

(Legend  as   in   Graph  I) 

To  show  the  relation  of  the  groups  to  each  other  in  each  test, 
the  percentage  that  the  mean  of  a  given  test  is  of  the  total  maxi- 
mum score  possible  of  that  test  was  computed  throughout  the 
eight  tests.     These  figures  are  given  in  Table  XXX,  and  are  pre- 

[43] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

sented  graphically  (Graph  IV).  Observation  of  these  curves  re- 
veals certain  features  in  the  performance  in  the  test  that  may  be 
thought  typical.  As  has  been  observed  already,  the  three  Latin 
samples  keep  nearly  parallel  to  each  other  everywhere,  in  test 
results  and  grade  location.  One  of  the  outstanding  aspects  of 
these  curves  is  their  general  similarity  in  contour.  They  rise  and 
fall  together  in  almost  every  instance.  The  one  exception  appears 
to  be  with  the  Portuguese  in  test  VII  where  they  out-distance  the 
other  South  Europeans  somewhat  noticeably.  The  only  explana- 
tion for  this  is  the  possible  clue  that  in  the  Portuguese  group 
were  a  few  individuals  who  ran  far  beyond  the  average  of  the 
group  in  the  alpha  test."  Had  the  sample  in  this  case  been  larger, 
this  exception  might  be  wiped  out  by  the  existence  of  relatively 
more  cases  in  the  lower  ranges. 

In  test  I,  dependent  on  language  only  for  the  bare  directions, 
the  Latins  did  best  of  all,  yet  so  did  the  Americans.  In  test  II 
(arithmetical  reasoning),  test  III  (common  sense  judgments),  and 
test  VI  (series  completion),  the  Latins  did  not  do  particularly 
better,  relatively,  than  they  did  in  the  tests  more  obviously  de- 
pendent on  mastery  of  language.  One  must  keep  in  mind  the 
fluctuation  of  the  curve  for  the  American  group,  where  the  alleged 
language  difficulty  does  not  exist,  in  order  to  generalize  about 
asserted  linguistic  handicaps  for  the  Latins.  As  noted  above,  in 
test  IV  both  Latins  and  non-Latins  fall  down.  In  test  V  they  are 
comparatively  in  much  the  same  position  with  the  total  sweep  of 
their  curves.  In  test  VII  it  would  actually  seem  that  the  American 
group  did  relatively  poorer  compared  to  their  total  showing  than 
the  Latins. 

Tables  XXXI,  XXXII  and  XXXIII  summarize  the  principal 
data  on  the  differences  in  the  means  of  the  tests,  the  differences 
in  percentages  of  the  maximum  possible  scores  for  the  individual 
tests  and  so  the  differences  in  the  percentages  of  zero  scores  for 
the  four  groups.  In  no  case  is  the  P.  E.  of  the  differences  of  the 
means  large  enough  to  warrant  any  other  conclusion  than  that 
the  differences  are  true  differences,  and  the  existence  in  two  or 
three  tests  of  high  percentages  of  zero  scores  is  after  all  relative  to 
the  groups  tested  in  large  part.  The  array  of  differences  in  per- 
centages that  the  means  are  of  the  maximum  scores  simply  states 
what  is  pictured  in  Graph  IV.     The  differences  in  the  percentage 


"  Cf :  Table  VII  for  distribution  of  Portuguese.  There  were  five  of  these  pupila 
with  aipha  total  scores  of  99.  92,  89,  84  and  80.  Of  these,  23,  10,  15,  27  and  17  p«r  cent 
respectively  of  the  total  score  came  from  the  score  in  test  VII. 


[44] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

of  zero  scores  shows  the  inadequacy  of  the  test  to  differentiate  at 
the  lower  levels  of  mental  ability.  The  significant  thing,  then,  is 
that  the  percentages  of  zero  scores,  like  the  differences  in  means, 
either  of  total  or  of  individual  tests,  is  relative  to  the  mental 
capacity  of  the  groups  in  question.  While  the  alpha  test  did  prove 
at  fault  in  the  matter  of  differentation  in  the  lower  ranges,  it  was 
a  fault  that  applied  equally  to  all  the  samples  concerned.  The 
average  difference  in  the  amount  of  percentage  of  zero  scores  is 
itself  a  rough  measure  of  the  differences  in  the  mental  capacity 
of  the  groups. 

TABLE  XXXI.  DIFFERENCES  IN  THE  MEANS  OF  EACH  SEPARATE  TEST 
WITH  P.  E.'s  OF  THE  DIFFERENCES  IN  MEANS 

ALPHA    TESTS 
Difference  in   Means—  I  II  III        IV  V  VI        VII      VIII 

American   S.   J.  and  Italian  S.   J.     2.79  2.32 

P.    E.    difference    14  .15 

American  S.  J.  and  Portuguese....     3.06  2.91 

P.   E.  difference  20  .22 

American    S.    J.    and    Span.-Mex.     3.00  3.02 

P.    E.    difference    20  .21 

BETA    TESTS 

Difference  in  Means —                                  I  II 

American  S.   J.  and  Italian   S.  J.       .61  2.11 

P.    E.    difference    07  .24 

American  S.  J.  and  Portuguese 18  2.42 

P.    E.    difference   10  .27 

American    S.    J.    and    Span.-Mex.       .30  1.26 

P.    E.    difference    10  .32 

*  The  S.  J.  Italians  exceeded  the  S.  J.  Americans  in  this  test.     All  other  cases  show 
Americans  exceeding  the  Latins. 

TABLE    XXXII.     DIFFERENCES    IN    PERCENTAGE    THE    MEAN    OF    EACH 

SEPARATE    TEST    IS    OF    THE    MAXIMUM    SCORE 

SCORE  POSSIBLE  IN   EACH   TEST 


3.14 

5.01 

3.44 

2.91 

4.28 

7.30 

.17 

.24 

.22 

.17 

.25 

.26 

4.31 

5.80 

3.56 

2.56 

2.03 

6.86 

.25 

.22 

.32 

.26 

.44 

.42 

3.53 

5.17 

3.70 

2.45 

4.71 

7.64 

.24 

.17 

.17 

.28 

.48 

.44 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

1.41 

1.26 

.81* 

3.75 

2.15 

.42 

.13 

.24 

.21 

.14 

2.03 

2.42 

.18 

3.28 

2.31 

.16 

.23 

.39 

.27 

.17 

1.52 

2.24 

1.14 

1.91 

2.40 

.23 

.22 

.45 

.38 

.22 

ALPHA   TESTS 

;* 

Difference  in  %■ 

— 

I        II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

American  S. 
American  S. 
American    S. 

J. 
J. 
J. 

and  Italian   S.   J. 

and  Portuguese.... 

and    Span.-Mex. 

23.25     11.60 
25.50     14.55 
25.10     15.10 

BETA    TESTS 

19.63 
26.94 

22.06 

12.53 
14.55 
12.93 

14.32 
14.82 
15.40 

14.55 
12.60 
12.25 

10.70 

5.08 

11.78 

18.26 
17.16 
18.86 

Difference  in  %- 

— 

I                II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

American  S. 
American    S. 
American    S. 

J. 
J 

J, 

and  Italian  S.   J. 
.    and    Portuguese 
.    and    Span.-Mex. 

14.20     13.18 
5.80     15.12 

8.00       7.87 

11.77 
16.92 

12.67 

4.20 
8.06 
7.46 

3.24t 

1.12 

4.56 

18.75 

16.40 

9.55 

22.50 
23.10 
24.00 

*  The  American  S.   J.  exceed  all  groups  in  alpha  by  these  differences. 
t  In  beta  V,  the  Italian  S.  J.  exceed  the  Americans. 

TABLE    XXXIII.     DIFFERENCES    IN    THE    PERCENTAGE    OF    ZERO    SCORES    IN 

EACH    SEPARATE    TEST 


ALPHA    TESTS 

Difference  in 

Vcr- 

I               II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

American 
American 
American 

S.  J. 
S.    J. 
S.    J. 

and  Italian  S.  J.  19.60     10.40 
and    Portuguese  25.00       5.60 
and    Span.-Mex.  20.20     12.70 

BETA    TESTS 

16.10 
33.00 
23.00 

29.00 
48.00 
39.70 

23.00 
24.40 
30.60 

24.10 
16.30 
12.30 

23.70 
25.60 
32.50 

18.00 
15.80 
14.60 

Difference  in 

"/r- 

I               II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

American 
American 
American 

S.  J. 
S.    J. 
S.    J. 

and  ItaUan  S.  J.     8.10     12.20 
and    Portuguese     4.70       3.50 
and    Span.-Mex.     1.20       1.90 

.60 

2.70 
l.WO 

4.70 
5.40 
3.80 

1.90 
2.00 
S.IO 

.50 

2.70 

.00 

15.60 
10.60 
11.60 

[45] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

a.  The  Beta  Tests.  Tables  XXX  to  XXXIII  and  Graph  V 
show  the  same  facts  for  the  separate  tests  in  beta  as  for  the  alpha. 
The  means  for  the  separate  tests,  with  the  S.  D.  and  P.  E.  of  the 
means,  and  also  the  S.  D.  and  P.  E.  of  the  distributions  are  given. 
It  is  apparent  at  once,  as  it  was  for  the  averages  and  dispersions 
of  the  total  beta,  that  the  groups  are  much  nearer  together  in 
their  performance  in  these  tests  than  in  the  alpha. 


GRAPH    V.     PROFILES    SHOWING    THE    PERCENTAGE    WHICH    THE    MEAN    OF 

EACH  TEST  IS  OF  THE   MAXIMUM  POSSIBLE   SCORE   IN 

EACH   TEST   FOR   BETA 


(Legend  as  in  Graph  I) 


The  percentage  of  zero  scores  is  negligible  except  in  the  case 
of  test  VII  for  all  Latins,  and  also  test  II  for  the  Italians.  In 
tests  III,  IV  and  VI  the  Americans  had  no  zero  scores  whatsoever. 
The  other  tests  yielded  low  percentages  throughout.  In  the  case 
of  test  II  for  S.  J.  Italians,  no  special  explanation  is  available.  It 
is  unlikely  that  the  Italian  group  is  deficient  in  the  abilities  needed 
in  cube  analysis  when  compared  to  other  Latins.  Anyway,  in 
terms  of  the  mean  for  test  II  they  exceed  the  Portuguese  and  are 
only  slightly  lower  than  the  Spanish-Mexicans,  hence  in  the  per- 
centage of  the  maximum  score  in  test  II  reached  by  the  mean,  the 
matter  of  the  percentage  of  zero  scores  is  wiped  out.     Were  the 

[46] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

percentage  of  zeros  not  so  high,  of  course,  the  mean  itself  would 
be  greater. 

In  test  VII  the  matter  appears  really  one  of  the  difficulty  of 
the  test,  for  all  the  Latins  have  a  considerable  percentage  of  zero 
scores,  with  the  Italians  exceeding  the  other  two  groups.  Geomet- 
rical construction  (test  VII)  may  involve  for  the  12-year-old  South 
European  child  difficulties  beyond  his  innate  capacities. 

Graph  V  pictures  the  relative  standing  in  the  separate  tests  in 
terms  of  the  ratio  of  the  mean  in  each  test  for  each  group  to  the 
maximum  score  possible  for  that  test.  While  the  Americans  do 
not  outstrip  the  Latins  so  extensively  as  in  alpha,  they  maintain 
their  superiority  in  each  test,  with  one  exception.  For  the  Italians 
in  test  V  (number  checking)  the  mean  is  slightly  greater  than  it 
is  for  the  Americans.  In  tests  II,  III,  VI  and  VII  the  Americans 
exceed  the  Latins  more  than  in  I  and  IV.  In  V  the  former  only 
slightly  surpass  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexicans.  It  is 
interesting  that  even  in  test  II  (X-0  series)  which  is  probably  the 
easiest  test  of  the  entire  set,  which  permits  of  unwarranted  attain- 
ment of  a  score  (through  chance  making  of  cross  and  circles  with- 
out comprehending  why)  and  is  facilitated  by  rapid  motor  activity, 
the  non-Latins  increase  their  lead  over  their  fellows.  In  tests  IV 
and  V,  which  are  decidedly  perceptual  tests,  the  Latins  earn  more 
comparable  scores  with  the  non-Latins.  Test  VI  (picture  com- 
pletion) is  a  type  used  in  numerous  performance  scales  and  ap- 
pears to  have  a  high  reliability  and  to  differentiate  among  mental 
abilities  very  well.  Comment  on  test  VII  has  already  been  noted. 
On  the  whole,  with  beta  the  general  rise  and  fall  of  the  curves  for 
the  various  groups  parallel  each  other.  Once  more  one  is  forced 
to  conclude  that  the  differences  are  those  of  relative  standing,  or 
degree,  not  in  any  instance  differences  of  "kind." 

Tables  XXXI  to  XXXIII  present  the  differences  in  the  per- 
centages of  the  maximum  scores  reached  by  the  means,  and  the 
actual  differences  in  the  means  with  the  P.  E.'s,  and  also  the  dif- 
ferences in  the  percentages  of  zero  scores.  The  differences  in  the 
means  are  true  pictures  of  the  facts  as  indicated  by  the  relative  size 
of  the  P.  E.  's.  In  other  words,  another  sampling  might  show  that 
the  second  group  mean  would  exceed  the  first.  This  is  particularly 
true  of  the  differences  in  the  means  of  the  Americans  and  the 
Italians  and  the  former  and  the  Portuguese. 


'&• 


[47] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

F.  Conclusions  to  Part  2. 

A  survey  of  the  various  methods  of  measuring  the  differwices  in 
the  mental  ability  of  the  foreign  population  of  a  school  system 
and  comparing  the  same  to  the  school  population  that  is  "native" 
American,  in  the  sense  that  its  ancestry  were  the  early  settlers  in 
this  country,  shows  some  tremendous  differences.  In  grade  location 
the  Latin  stocks  are  nearly  two  grades  on  the  average  below  those 
of  the  non-Latins;  teachers'  ratings  of  the  general  intelligence  of 
these  groups  show  that  the  former  lie  on  the  average  one-seventh  of 
the  total  range  of  the  scale  below  the  latter.  Nearly  the  same 
results  are  present  when  the  actual  measures  of  school  success  are 
given.  It  must  be  rigorously  held  in  mind  that  the  children  com- 
pared are  all  of  the  same  chronological  age. 

So  too  with  the  results  of  mental  tests  applied  to  the  children. 
In  the  alpha  the  differences  are  very  marked.  In  beta,  while  they 
are  not  nearly  so  great,  they  are  still  significant.  The  query 
arises  why  the  beta  differences  are  not  so  noteworthy  as  the  differ- 
ences in  alpha.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  language  handicap  is  after 
all  the  pertinent  explanation  here?  And  if  it  is  not  so,  why  does 
not  the  beta  difference  show  itself  to  be  greater  than  it  is?  In 
reply  one  may  raise  other  questions :  Do  alpha  and  beta  test  simi- 
lar mental  functions?  Are  they  really  comparable  measures  of 
innate  mental  ability?  Or  are  there  features  in  the  tests  them- 
selves that  may,  at  least  in  part,  explain  the  problem  raised  in 
the  question  above  about  the  wide  divergence  in  alpha  and  the 
much  less  amount  in  beta? 

Before  going  into  an  attempted  answer  to  these  questions,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  see  what  the  correlations  of  the  various  meas- 
ures among  themselves  may  show  as  to  possible  cues  in  the  inter- 
pretation. 

3.  Correlations 

The  bare  results  of  correlations  will  be  presented  here,  the 
significant  comment  on  the  findings  being  reserved  for  the  final 
section  of  the  chapter.  It  must,  however,  be  noted  that  two  assump- 
tions are  held  as  valid :  first,  that  the  degree  of  correlation  between 
the  alpha, — the  verbal  test,  and  beta, — the  performance  test,  will 
reveal  the  extent  to  which  they  are  testing,  if  not  identical,  at  least 
very  comparable  mental  processes ;  second,  that  teachers '  estimates 
of  general  intelligence  and  of  school  work,  coupled  with  the  grade 

[48] 


I 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

location  and  possibly  parents'  economic  status  serve  as  legitimate 
checks  upon  the  mental  measurements,  for  if  the  latter  are  valu- 
able for  diagnosis  and  prediction,  they  must  show  some  relation  to 
already  known  criteria  of  success. 


A.  Correlations  of  Alpha  Against  Beta. 

Table  XXXIV  presents  the  correlations  "  of  the  various  criteria 
with  the  tests.  The  correlation  between  alpha  and  beta  is  high. 
The  S.  J.  Americans  and  the  Misc.  Americans  have  a  correlation 
coefficient  of  nearly  .62.  The  corresponding  correlations  for  the 
Latins  range  between  .58  for  the  Misc.  Italians,  which  is  a  rather 
small  sample  with  a  somewhat  larger  P.  E.  than  the  other  groups, 
to  .79  for  the  Portuguese.  The  S.  J.  Italians  give  an  r  of  .67 
while  the  Spanish-Mexican  group  is  slightly  lower,  .73.  The  P.E.'s 
of  all  these  groups  is  significantly  small,  indicating  high  reliability 
of  the  samples  employed.  All  Latins  grouped  together  give  a  cor- 
relation of  alpha  against  beta  of  ,736  P.  E.  .016. 

TABLE  XXXIV.     CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  VARIOUS  TESTS  AND  OTHER 

CRITERIA  COLLECTED  ON  RACE  GROUPS    (Pearson  r  formula) 
(All  correlations  are  positive) 

Race  Group                  r  with           r  with  r  with           r   with  r   with  r  with 

Beta            T.E.Int.t  T.E.Schw.       Grades  Taussig  Barr 

Amer.  S.J. 

A     615*.024       .698  .019  .607  .024  .762  .016  .215  .036  .388  .032 

B      .498  .029  .413  .032  .543  .027  .221  .034  .238  .036 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .670  .021  .574  .025  .742  .017  .316  .035  .356  .034 

Ital.   S.J. 

A     671  .022       .674  .027  .511  .036  .779  .018  .405  .041  .309  .044 

B      .533  .035  .428  .039  .751  .022  .336  .043  .175  .047 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .687  .025  .558  .034  .815  .016  .405  .041  .311  .044 

Port. 

A      788  .029       .487  .058  .398  .064  .812  .026  .354  .067  .224  .073 

B      .670  .040  .455  .061  .705  .038  .175  .075  .192  .075 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .706  .038  .461   .061  .799  .028  .311  .070  .286  .072 

Span.-Mex. 

A      726  .044       .563  .065  .384  .081  .773  .038  .449  .076  .212  .090 

B      .596  .059  .404  .077  .813  .033  .436  .075  .227  .088 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .587  .061  .436  .076  .842  .027  .414  .079  .241  .088 

ItaJ.   Misc. 

A     582  .065       .652  .050  .554  .062  .673  .049  .223  .086  .269  .083 

B     .481   .070  .354  .080  .649  .051  .422  .076  .308  .082 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .688  .048  .461  .072  .750  .040  .497  .070  .319  .082 

Amer.  Misc. 

A     618  .045       .644  .042  .542  .051  .752  .031  .225  .068  .168  .069 

B      .590  .047  .525  .052  .605  .045  .411   .076  .354  .064 

Comb.    A    and    B                            .684  .039  .584  .049  .772  .030  .259  .067  .284  .067 

*  The  second  figure  in  each  case  is  the  P.  E. 
t  T.E.  means  Teachers'  Estimates. 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  then,  that  the  alpha  and  beta,  while 
not  exactly  comparable,  are  fairly  so,  and  that  they  are  tapping 
much  the  same  mental  processes.  The  lower  correlation  for  the 
American  groups  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  beta,  as  has  been  noted, 

"  All  correlations  were  computed  by  the  Pearson  Product  Moment  Method,  using 
the  short  method  of  Rugg.     The  correlations  are  always  plus  unless  otherwise  stated. 

[49] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

does  not  differentiate  their  abilities  in  the  upper  ranges  and  hence 
the  range  of  scores  is  much  more  narrow  than  a  test  adequate  to 
their  abilities  would  be.  In  the  army  testing,  alpha  against  beta 
gave  an  r  of  .811,  P.  E.  of  .009,  with  653  cases  of  English-speaking 
men  from  nine  camps  (73,  p.  392).  This  group  was  less  selected 
for  intelligence  probably  than  the  group  of  12-year-old  school 
children  of  older  American  stock. 

The  outstanding  fact,  of  course,  is  the  high  correlation  of  alpha 
and  beta  in  the  case  of  the  Latin  groups,  indicating  that  much 
the  same  mental  functions  are  involved  throughout,  and  shows 
the  verbal  test  is  diagnostic  of  their  ability. 

B.  Correlations  of  Alpha,  Beta,  and  Comhined  Alpha  and  Beta, 
with  Outside  Criteria, 
i.  Teachers'  Estimates.  Using  the  mean  of  two  ratings"  on 
the  children  for  general  intelligence  and  for  quality  of  school 
work,  the  correlations  of  each  against  alpha,  against  beta  and 
against  the  combined  alpha  and  beta  total  scores  were  computed. 
(Cf:  Table  XXXIV.)  The  range  of  correlations  of  alpha  with 
intelligence  ratings  is  from  .50  to  .70.  The  Portuguese  and  Span- 
ish lying  near  the  former  figure,  while  the  other  groups  are  close 
to  the  latter.  These  correlations  may  be  considered  particularly 
high,  as  such  correlations  run  (73,  Pt.  II,  Ch.  11). 

The  correlations  of  beta  with  estimates  of  intelligence  show 
fluctuations  in  the  groups  that  the  alpha  do  not.  With  both  Ameri- 
can groups  the  correlation  runs  between  .50  and  .60,  while  with 
the  Spanish-Mexicans  and  Portuguese  they  run  between  .60  and 
.70.  There  may  be  a  qualitative  set  of  factors  accounting  for  this 
better  showing  of  beta  than  alpha  with  the  latter."  Nevertheless 
these  correlations  of  the  performance  scale  with  the  estimated 
intelligence  are  significantly  high.  On  the  whole  they  are  as  high 
for  beta  as  for  alpha. 

The  combined  alpha  and  beta  correlations  with  rating  of  in- 
telligence come  under  the  same  range  of  coefficients  as  the  separate 
batteries. 

With  school  work  there  are  several  factors  to  be  taken  into 
account.     While  mastery  of  school  subjects  is  basically  dependent 


'"  The  r  of  the  first  rating  on  intelligence  against  the  second  equals  .797  ;  first  rating 
on  school  work  against  second,  r  equals  .807.  This  indicates  in  another  way  the  reli- 
ability  of  the   ratings. 

-^  The  beta  throughout  shows  up  better  with  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexican 
groups  than  alpha.  This  appears  rather  due  to  their  low  intelligence  than  to  alleged 
language    difficulties. 

[50] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

on  general  intelligence,  the  grading  system  in  terms  of  mental  age 
is  so  unsatisfactory  that  the  children  are  not  where  their  abilities 
would  really  place  them.  If  the  children  were  all  properly  placed 
according  to  their  mental  age,  then  the  correlation  of  mental  test 
with  grade  location  would  be  practically  perfect ;  at  the  same  time, 
the  correlation  with  teachers'  estimates  of  school  work  would  be 
zero,  assuming  the  child  was  doing  his  maximum  work.  That  is, 
the  child  of  given  mental  age  would  be  put  in  the  proper  class 
and  could  only  be  justly  rated  as  "average."  That,  of  course, 
would  mean  no  correlation  with  mental  tests  in  terms  of  variables. 
Of  course,  in  a  practical  situation  even  with  grading  on  a  mental 
age  scale,  the  school  work  of  pupils  would  differ  somewhat  in 
quality,  and  hence  estimates  from  teachers  of  such  classes  could 
be  put  on  a  scale  of  short  range  at  least,  which  would  produce 
some  slight  correlation.  It  is  because  the  children  are  less  ade- 
quately placed  in  the  school  system  in  terms  of  their  mental  ages 
that  the  correlations  of  the  tests  with  quality  of  school  work  are 
as  high  as  they  are. 

This  last  fact,  coupled  with  the  disposition  of  the  teachers  to 
over-rate  the  foreign  children  generally,  adds  to  the  cause  of  the 
present  correlations.  Moreover,  success  in  school  work  is  not  en- 
tirely a  matter  of  intelligence.  So-called  non-intellectual  traits 
enter  into  the  pupils'  success. 

The  American  children  are  often  penalized  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  scale  than  the  Latins.  They  are  found  in  grades  too 
easy  for  them,  and  there  is  a  disposition  for  greater  displacement 
up  or  down  the  scale  than  with  the  Latins.  This  may  serve  to 
increase  the  correlations  of  the  American  groups  in  alpha  against 
quality  of  school  work.  While  the  tendency  for  the  teachers  is  to 
rate  the  quality  of  school  work  of  the  retarded  Latin's  average 
with  his  class,  the  American  who  is  advanced  for  his  chronological 
age  will  be  rated  lower  than  average  (though  as  a  matter  of  fact 
his  school  work  is  probably  average  in  his  grade).  Such  a  dis- 
placement would  produce  a  higher  correlation  of  the  test  against 
quality  of  school  work  for  this  group  than  for  the  Latins  who 
would  be  closely  grouped  around  the  "average"  point  on  the  scale, 
hence  lowering  their  correlations. 

In  the  beta  the  correlations  of  all  groups  are  much  more  uni- 
form. The  lowering  of  the  correlations  of  the  American  group  to 
the  level  of  the  Latins  is  likely  due  to  the  shorter  range  of  the 
beta  for  them,  which  would  offset,  for  instance,  the  spread  of  the 

[51] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

ratings  on  the  seven-fold  scale  of  the  teachers'  ratings.  With  the 
Portuguese  the  beta  correlation  is  higher  than  the  corresponding 
alpha.  The  sample  is  small  and  the  P.  E.'s  indicate  that  the  dif- 
ference is  not  great  since  other  such  samples  might  fluctuate  be- 
tween the  two  coefficients,  for  either  alpha  or  beta  against  school 
work.  The  general  range  of  correlations  for  school  work  is  from 
nearly  .40  to  slightly  over  .50.  These  are  not  high  but  are  large 
enough  to  indicate  the  relation  between  present  schemes  of  rating 
quality  of  school  work  and  the  mental  tests.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, as  we  just  pointed  out,  that  such  correlations  are  really 
reflections  on  the  inadequacy  of  the  system  of  co-ordinating  native 
abilities  to  opportunity  for  school  progress,  plus  the  influence  of 
non-intellectual  traits  on  school  success. 

The  combined  scales  correlated  with  the  school  work  will 
naturally  smooth  out  the  discrepancies  between  the  results  in  the 
two  tests.  (Note  the  run  of  correlations  in  the  accompanying 
table  for  the  combined  scores.)  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
mere  addition  of  a  number  of  new  tests  to  a  battery  tends  in  itself 
to  raise  the  correlation,  although  the  diagnostic  value  of  the  same 
may  not  be  particularly  enhanced.  However,  the  results  of  the 
present  study  would  indicate  that  the  combination  of  alpha  and 
beta  gives  a  better  diagnosis  as  measured  against  outside  criteria 
than  either.  The  verbal  test  alpha,  nevertheless,  is  the  most  sig- 
nificant half  of  the  combined  test.'' 

ii.  Grade  Location.  In  all  likelihood  there  is  no  outside  cri- 
terion so  objective  as  the  grade  location  of  the  children  at  the 
time  of  testing.  While  even  grading  is  somewhat  subjective,  it 
is  a  measure  of  the  child's  individual  capacity  and  is  relatively 
free  from  personal  bias.  In  the  long  run  the  ordinary  child  finds 
his  grade-level.  The  exceptions  to  this  are  rather  the  children 
of  superior  rather  than  inferior  ability  (111)  who  are  held  back 
with  those  not  equal  to  them  in  native  capacity.  But  with  the 
average  child  and  those  slightly  below  average  their  grade  location 
is  a  fair  measure  of  their  successful  adjustment  to  the  school  pro- 
gram. In  fact,  it  is  the  problem  of  discovering  the  reasons  for 
the  present  grade  location  of  large  numbers  of  the  children  of 
foreign  parentage  that  this  study  was  undertaken.  Table  XXXIV 
shows  that  with  one  exception  the  alpha  test  gives  higher  correla- 


""  The  combined  alpha  and  beta  is  not  an  adequate  group  test  for  diagmoetic  purposes 
in  schools.  A  test  made  up  of  items  both  verbal  and  non-verbal  might  be  devised  which 
would  be  better  for  practical  purposes  than  either  alone. 


[52] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

tions  v/ith  grade  location  than  the  beta,  and  this  exception,  that 
of  the  Spanish-Mexican  groups, — beta  vs.  grade  location, — the  dif- 
ference is  negligible,  being  well  within  the  limits  of  the  P.  E.  of 
either  correlation.  So  even  here,  beta  does  not  correlate  markedly 
higher  with  grade  status  than  does  alpha. 

The  r  of  alpha  against  grade  location  ranges  from  .67  to  .81. 
It  is  instructive  that  the  correlations  are  somewhat  higher  for  the 
Latins  than  for  the  Americans.  The  range  of  correlations  of  beta 
against  grade  location  is  from  .54  to  .81.  Here,  as  with  correlation 
of  beta  and  teachers'  estimates,  the  S.  J.  American  group,  especially, 
shows  up  poorly.  It  is  increasingly  evident  that  beta  is  less 
adequate  for  diagnosis  for  the  non-Latin  group  than  alpha.  The 
difference  in  diagnostic  value  between  the  verbal  test  and  the 
performance  for  the  Latins,  while  present,  is  not  so  marked.  The 
beta  in  the  case  of  Spanish-Mexicans  shows  some  superiority  over 
alpha  but  not  a  significant  one. 

Combined  alpha  and  beta  against  grade  location  gives  higher 
correlations  than  either  alone  with  the  Latins,  while  for  the  Amer- 
icans the  inclusion  of  the  homogeneous  beta  group  lowers  the 
correlation  when  it  is  compared  to  that  of  the  alpha  alone  against 
grade.  This  is  more  true  with  the  S.  J.  group  than  the  Misc. 
Americans. 

Pooling  all  the  Latin  groups  together  for  a  correlation  of  alpha 
against  grade  location,  r  equals  .80,  P.  E.  .012.  For  beta  r  equals 
.708,  P.  E.  .014.  The  superiority  of  alpha  over  beta  in  correlation 
with  the  outside  criterion,  grade  location,  is  noteworthy. 

Table  XXXV  presents  an  array  of  correlation  coefficients  of 
the  separate  tests  in  alpha  and  in  beta  against  the  grade  location. 
It  was  hoped  that  this  might  show  which  tests  were  operating  to 
produce  the  correlation  of  the  total  batteries  against  grade  posi- 
tion.    Only  the  four  principal  samples  were  used. 

The  alpha  section  against  grade  location  discloses  the  fact  that 
tests  II,  III,  IV,  VII  and  VIII  yield  high  results.  The  exact 
reliability  of  these  individual  tests  is  not  known,  yet  assuming  it 
to  be  high,  as  one  may,'°  it  is  interesting  that  in  the  tests  which 
approach  the  perceptual,  like  the  first,  and  the  arithmetic  reasoning 
and  common-sense  which  are  not  greatly  dependent  on  language, 
the  Italian  and  Portuguese  do  somewhat  better  as  measured  by 
these  correlations.     One  might  say,  of  the  total  eight  tests,  tests  I, 


"  TfMn  the  fact  that  the  reliability  of  the  entire  test  is  high  and  from  the  fact  th»t 
testa  of  the  Bame  general  types  have  always  yielded  high  reliability  coefficients. 


[53] 


*  Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups  \ 

II  and  III  would  serve  as  indicative  of  their  ability,  perhaps,  if 
it  is  measured  by  such  a  relationship,  better  than  the  other  four 
or  five  tests.  Test  VIII  (Information)  however,  while  pretty 
much  dependent  on  reading  and  conversation,  yields  a  high  cor- 
relation for  the  Latin  groups.  The  analysis  of  the  percentage  of 
zero  scores  in  tests  IV,  V  and  VI  ,  on  the  other  hand,  offers  a  cue 
that  the  reason  for  the  low  correlation  in  these  tests  is  the  high 
proportion  of  zero  scores,  which  shortens  the  range  and  makes 
the  group  more  homogeneous  and  the  test  less  differentiating.  A 
better  test,  of  like  nature,  more  comm^ensurate  with  the  native 
ability  of  such  groups,  would  give  a  more  adequate  picture  of  the 
differences. 

TABLE  XXXV.     CORRELATIONS  OF  INDIVIDUAL  ALPHA  AND  BETA  TESTS 
AGAINST  GRADE  LOCATION    (4  Principal  Samples) 

i  INDIVIDUAL    TESTS 

Alpha                  I                   II  III                  IV                  V  VI                  VII  VIII 

Amer.     S.J...     .534*.027  .626  .02.3  .668  .021  .607  .024  .508  .028  .553  .027  .564  .026  .661  .020 

Ital.     S.J 652  .028  .630  .029  .681  .026  .463  .039  .553  .034  .535  .035  .605  .031  .656  .027 

Port 657  .043  .658  .043  .691   .039  .483  .059  .539  .054  .684  .042  .636  .046  .718  .037 

Sp.-Mex.     708  .047  .673  .052  .589  .061  .511  .069  .479  .072  .681   .051  .625  .057  .716  .047 

Beta 

Amer.  S.  J...     .200  .027  .173  .037  .320  .034  .345  .033  .470  .030  .290  .035  .281  .035 

Ital.   S.   J.     .     .503  .036  .302  .044  .534  .035  .585  .032  .588  .032  .514  .036  .457  .038 

Port 362  .068  .248  .073  .580  .052  .657  .044  .636  .046  .298  .071  .299  .071 

Sp.-Mex 461  .073  .466  .072  .551   .064  .673  .051  .648  .052  .606  .058  .502  .069 

•The  second  figure  in  each  case  is  the  P.  E. 

It  is  striking  in  view  of  the  objections  sometimes  raised  against 
verbal  tests  for  the  immigrants  and  lower  social  levels  of  popula- 
tion that  tests  VII  and  VIII  give  such  high  correlations.  There- 
fore, altogether,  were  tests  IV  and  V  more  fitted  to  the  capacities 
of  the  12-year-olds  generally,  Latin  and  non-Latin,  the  usual  lan- 
guage factor  as  a  hindrance  to  success  in  them  could  not  legiti- 
mately be  put  forward.  The  experience  with  verbal  tests  arranged 
especially  for  school  children  proves  this  fact.'" 

'"  Pintner  and  Patterson  (81)  and  others  interested  in  performance  scales  maintain 
that  verbal  tests  are  unjust  to  many  children  and  adults.  The  writer  of  the  present 
monograph  does  not  believe  the  verbal  tests  so  unjust,  except  to  certain  sub-normals 
and  to  non-English  speaking  immigrants  who  have  recently  arrived  in  this  country.  Up 
to  the  present  the  performance  tests  have  failed  to  provide  such  items  as  tap  the 
"higher  thought  processes."  On  the  other  hand,  studies  of  Terman  and  his  students  on 
the  importance  of  vocabulary  tests  in  diagnosing  general  intelligence  and  the  high  corre- 
lation of  completion  tests  with  outside  measures,  indicate  lack  of  capacity,  not  handicap 
of  language,  as  the  factor  in  the  difficulty.  For  instance,  those  who  strenuously  object 
to  "language"  tests  for  immigrants  often  forget  the  important  fact  that  the  majority  of 
these  immigrants  have  no  grasp  on  their  native  tongue.  They  would  be  quite  as  much 
at  a  loss  if  the  verbal  tests  were  couched  in  their  language. 

More  important  than  verbal  or  non-verbal  tests,  is  the  proper  inclusion  of  such 
content  in  any  tests  as  probe  the  true  ability  of  the  persons  tested.  More  injustice  is 
done  the  non-English  speaking  immigrants  when  the  tasks  before  them  are  put  into 
forms  and  experiences  of  which  they  know   not  due  to  difference  in   cultural   background. 

Recently  Pintner  and  Keller  ( 82 )  have  compared  the  results  of  the  Pintner  Non- 
Language  test  with  the  Binet  and  discovered  that  for  kindergarten,  first  and  second 
grade  children  at  least,  the  Binet  tests  do  not  give  as  favorable  an  I.  Q.  or  mental  age 
as    the    non-verbal    test.     The    reliability    of    the    non-verbal    test    is    not    given,    nor    its 

[54] 


■■■  Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

The  correlations  of  individual  beta  tests  against  grade  location 
disclose  lower  coefficients  throughout  than  the  alpha.  Since  the 
correlations  of  beta  total  score  against  grade  location  is  lower  than 
the  alpha,  except  in  one  case — Spanish-Mexican —  and  there  the 
difference  was  not  great,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  correlations 
of  the  individual  tests  with  outside  criteria  would  be  lower.  With 
the  Americans,  other  things  like  reliability  and  length  of  range 
being  equal,"  tests  I  and  II  are  decidedly  too  easy  for  the  Ameri- 
cans, test  VII  only  fairly  so.  With  the  Italian  and  Spanish- 
Mexican  groups  these  tests  are  much  better  single  measures.  Tests. 
IV  and  V  seem  from  these  correlations,  at  least,  to  be  the  most 
reliable  individual  measures  for  the  American  group.  4 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact  that  the  beta  test 
appears  on  all  sides  to  be  slightly  more  favorable  for  measuring 
the  Spanish-Mexicans.  The  evidence  here  corroborates  this  belief 
again.  In  all  cases  the  correlations  are  rather  better  than  with 
either  of  the  other  groups,  Latins  or  the  Americans. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  evidence  from  these  few 
samples  of  separate  correlations  do  not  always  reveal  the  adequacy 
of  the  single  tests.  Extended  inter-correlations  and  correlations 
of  individual  tests  with  other  outside  criteria,  correction  for  length 
of  range  in  each  test,  etc.,  would  have  to  be  made.  The  interest 
in  this  study  lies  more  in  the  fact  that  these  composite  batteries 
of  mental  tests  do  prove  adequate  measures  of  native  ability  when 
compared  to  the  best  outside  standards  of  judgment  that  can  be 
found.  Their  results,  however,  are  by  no  means  absolute.  The 
results  can  not  rise  above  their  source. 

Hi.  Social-Economic  Standing  of  the  Parents.  The  Taussig 
scale  which  was  used  to  classify  the  parents'  occupations  has 
already  been  mentioned.  One  set  of  correlations  (cf:  Table 
XXXIV)  is  based  on  this  scale.     A  second  scale  of  grading  occu- 

correlation  with  the  school  standing  of  the  children,  its  correlation  for  both  foreign  and 
native  children  with  Binet  is  low,  and  further  the  number  of  cases  was  small.  More- 
over, in  the  material  presented  in  the  present  thesis,  the  age  group  was  advanced  over 
Pintner's  and  the  children's  families  were  likely  of  longer  standing  in  this  country.  It 
is  difficult  to  measure  the  extent  of  the  home  influence  on  the  language. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  school  procedure  what  is  desired  is  predictability 
of  performance  with  school  materials.  It  is  yet  to  be  shown  that  the  group  perform- 
ance tests  so  frequently  invented  serve  as  well  as  Binet  or  other  partially  verbal  tests 
for  the  diagnostic  purposes  of  school  practice.  The  writer  does  not  wish  to  be  dogmatic 
but  he  does  hold  that  his  results  have  got  at  the  problem  in  a  fairly  significant  way. 
Cf:    (18). 

"  Carl  C.  Brown  gives  the  length  of  range  for  the  various  beta  tests  as  determined 
in  the  army:  Test  I  has  a  range  of  1.2  S.D.  ;  II  has  2.6  S.D.  ;  111  has  "nearly  unlimited 
range"  ;  IV  has  2  S.D.  ;  V,  2  S.D.  ;  VI,  "nearly  unlimited"  ;  VII,  1.5  S.D.  These  figures 
were  taken  from  a  sample  of  672  cases  of  enlisted  men.  The  fact  that  the  American 
12-year-olds  did  so  well  in  several  of  the  beta  tests  indicates  that  its  length  of  range  and 
its  difficulty  should  be  increased. 

[55] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

pations  was  used,  that  of  Barr,  who  devised  a  scale  from  the  com- 
posite judgments  of  twenty  persons  as  to  the  amount  of  general 
intelligence  necessary  for  success  in  a  list  of  121  occupations." 
This  composite  judgment  by  rank-order  was  worked  over  into  a 
frequency  curve  and  a  P.  E.  value  was  assigned  to  each  occupation 
on  a  basal  range  of  4.6  P.  E.  Then  those  occupations  lying  con- 
tiguous on  this  scale  of  P.  E.'s  were  thrown  together  into  fourteen 
classes  for  the  entire  scale.  While  there  are  some  obvious  diffi- 
culties in  the  method  of  devising,  the  scale  is  better  than  any  indi- 
vidual judgment  of  vocations. 

The  table  reveals  considerable  fluctuation  within  the  groups. 
On  the  whole  alpha  correlates  more  highly  with  the  occupation 
scales  than  beta,  but  the  tendency  is  not  constant  throughout. 
Note  the  Misc.  Italians,  Misc.  Americans,  especially.  Also  it  is 
not  evident  from  these  correlations  which  of  the  two  classifications 
is  the  better  for  these  groups.  The  beta  with  Barr  scale  gives  on 
the  whole  low  correlations  with  such  large  P.  E.  's  as  to  be  of  little 
value,  and  the  writer  desists  from  any  attempted  explanation  of 
these  facts  bej'ond  the  vague,  general  one,  that  the  immigrant 
groups  have  not  yet  found  their  levels  of  occupation  commensurate 
with  their  native  abilities,  and  that  the  Americans,  while  giving 
somewhat  higher  correlations,  may  also  be  said  to  be  classified  on 
other  strata  than  those  of  intelligence  alone,  and  finally  the  in- 
adequacy of  the  scale  itself.  There  are  so  many  factors  entering 
into  one's  economic  situation, — ambitions,  interests,  attitudes  to- 
ward the  unscrupulous  accumulation  of  wealth,  inheritance  of 
unearned  increments,  and  so  on, — these  obscure  the  place  that 
general  mental  capacity  plaj^s  in  selection  and  success  in  vocations." 

On  the  whole,  in  spite  of  limitations  of  sampling  and  inadequacy 
of  the  scales,  mental  and  occupational,  some  correlation  is  discov- 
ered.    If  alpha  be  assumed  a  better  qualified  test  of  innate  ability 


^-  While  Barr  doubtless  had  a  fertile  idea  in  his  thesis,  his  group  of  judges  (college 
professors,  graduate  students,  and  a  few  others)  was  too  homogeneous  in  interests  and 
experience.  His  sample  of  opinions,  in  other  words,  was  too  narrow.  If  he  had  included 
business  men,  industrial  managers,  industrial  engineers,  foremen,  and  even  skilled  work- 
men themselves  among  his  judges,  the  scale  would  have  been  more  valuable.  Of  course 
there  remains  the  further  difficulty : :  There  are  no  standardized  categories  for  the 
various  occupations.  For  instance,  take  nursing ;  while  nurses  are  rated  high  by  Barr's 
judges,  evidently  thinking  of  graduate,  well-trained  persons,  in  actual  practice  many 
women  rate  the  title  "nurse"  who  never  had  a  day  of  hospital  training.  The  writer 
came  across  such  cases.  So  too  with  "carpenter," — this  trade  runs  from  the  high-grade 
skill  demanded  for  indoor  finishing  and  cabinet-making  to  rough  "wood-butchers."  The 
former  likely  possess,  on  the  average,  a  good  deal  more  mental  ability  than  the  latter. 
There  is  also  the  question  of  specific  skills  and  ability. 

'*  There  is  a  real  need  for  an  extended  survey  of :  ( 1 )  the  mental  ability  in  the 
various  occupational  levels  of  our  population ;  ( 2 )  the  existence  of  special  aptitudes  for 
different  occupations ;  ( 3 )  the  place  economic  and  educational  opportunity  have  in  the 
selection  and  success ;  and  ( 4 )  the  place  non-intellectual  traits  may  have  in  selection 
and   success. 

[56] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

than  beta,  its  correlations  with  the  Taussig  scale  in  the  case  of  the 
Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexicans  and  with  the  Barr  in  the  case 
of  the  Americans  might  be  used  as  a  basis  for  holding  that  these 
groups  are  roughly  segregated  into  economic  levels  according  to 
their  mental  abilities,  that  is  if  we  may  assume  further  that  the 
intelligence  level  of  the  parents  is  highly  or  perfectly  correlated 
with  that  of  the  children  as  shown  in  the  alpha." 

In  conclusion  of  this  section,  we  may  say  that  the  correlations 
of  alpha  versus  beta  show  that,  in  the  main,  these  two  tests  are 
comparable.  The  high  correlation  of  the  Latin  alpha  with  the 
outside  criteria,  especially  grade  location,  is  the  second  most  signifi- 
cant feature.  For  our  purpose,  the  indication  that  the  alpha  test 
does  not  do  injustice  to  the  Latin  groups,  as  measured  by  these 
correlations,  is  important.  The  problem  of  the  alleged  language 
handicap  must,  therefore,  be  interpreted  in  the  light  not  only  of 
the  measures  of  central  tendency  and  dispersion  in  these  tests,  but 
also  in  view  of  the  correlational  material. 

4.  Interpretations  and  Discussion  of  Data 

First  of  all,  are  the  alpha  and  beta  comparable  tests?  This 
question  has  been  partially  answered  above.  While  the  correla- 
tion of  alpha  and  beta  together  gives  a  high  coefficient,  it  is  not 
high  enough  for  these  groups  to  warrant  saying  that  it  approaches 
perfect  correspondence.  It  is  not  so  high,  at  least  for  Americans, 
as  the  correlations  between  alpha  and  beta  uncovered  in  the  army 
experience.  Nevertheless,  the  uniformly  high  correlations  of  the 
verbal  alpha  against  the  non-verbal,  beta,  indicates  that  the  alleged 
language  handicap  is  not  present  to  the  extent  imagined  by  the 
teachers  and  school  officials. 

Two  difficulties  with  the  tests  used  must  be  noted  to  get  the 
proper  perspective.  Alpha,  while  proving  very  good  for  differen- 
tiation of  the  American  groups  as  a  whole,  was  too  difficult  for 
those  Latin  12-year-olds  who  were  mentally  retarded.  While 
much  has  been  written  about  the  verbal  test  as  involving  mere 
linguistic  fluency,  I  take  it  sufficient  proof  to  the  contrary  has 
been  offered  in  experimental  literature  to  overthrow  these  opinions." 


'■*  In  the  case  of  the  Latin  groups  classified  by  Taussig,  there  exists  only  four  classes 
which  lowers  the  correlations  because  it  shortens  the  range,  etc.  A  scale  of  four  units 
is  really  too  short  to  be  used  by  the  Pearson  Product  Moment  method.  From  this  stand- 
point, other  things  being  equal,  the  Barr  is  preferable. 

•'"Cf:  (129,  102)  and  other  studies.  There  has  been  considerable  discussion  of  this 
problem  by  certain  philologists  like  Max  Miiller,  who  maintained  that  language  and  think- 
ing   (in  the  broad  sense)    are  inseparable.     Cf:    (52)    1:263   for  quotation   from   Miiller. 


[57] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

At  least  the  severe  adherent  of  the  other  view  must  bear  the  burden 
of  proof  to  the  contrary.  It  is  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  the 
highest  mental  adjustments  take  place  in  terms  of  secondary  pro- 
cesses ("derived  implicit  behavior"  one  behaviorist  has  called  it), 
processes  largely  in  terms  of  symbolic  imagery,  language  and  other 
"short  cuts"  and  "cues"  to  facilitate  "advance  adaptation."  It 
is  true  as  James "  succinctly  illustrates  that  mere  flow  of  words 
is  no  criterion  to  thought.  Yet  as  Mead,  Dewey,  and  latterly 
Watson  "  have  pointed  out,  thinking  does  go  on  in  language,  that 
is,  symbolic  terms,  and  that  these  "implicit"  adjustments  are 
exactly  what  make  for  success  or  failure  in  the  complicated  prob- 
lems of  life  must  be  admitted,  since  these  permit  foresight,  pro- 
adaptation,  preliminary  solution.  Certainly  we  must  distinguish 
between  sheer  superficial  fluency  and  the  actual  use  of  language 
symbols  in  thinking.  Tests  which  do  not  take  these  distinctions 
into  account  are  of  course  inadequate.  Good  vocabulary  tests 
(which  would  take  into  account  qualitative  differences),  well-con- 
structed completion  tests,  and  analogies  and  proverbs  tests  do  not 
constitute  tests  of  mere  verbal  fluency.  A  composition  scale, 
accentuating  verbal  ornateness,  on  the  contrary,  might  be  such, 
(cf:  91). 

As  was  pointed  out  above,  those  tests  in  alpha  which  are 
especially  difficult  from  the  language  side  yielded  lower  averages 
because  of  the  percentage  of  zero  scores,  and  zero  score,  as  has 
been  noted,  is  not  synonymous  with  710  ahility  at  all,  but  means 
that  the  instrument  of  measurement  did  not  register.  Moreover, 
the  percentage  of  zero  scores  was  high  for  all  the  12-year-olds  in 
tests  IV  and  V,  only  relatively  greater  for  the  Latins  than  for  the 
Americans.  The  accusation  of  language  against  test  VI  in  alpha 
cannot  be  made,  yet  the  percentage  of  zero  scores  in  certain  of 
the  Latin  groups  is  high  there.  Further,  test  VIII  (Information) 
which  is  at  least  indirectly  dependent  on  communication  and  lan- 
guage yields  high  correlations  with  grade  locations  and  also  shows 
a  higher  mean  score  than  would  be  expected  if  the  language  factor 
operated  as  might  be  imagined.  On  the  other  hand.  Oral  Direc- 
tions, Arithmetic  Reasoning,  Number  Completion,  and  Common- 
sense  Judgment  are  not  greatly  dependent  on  language  and  show 


"Cf:  (52)  I:  263  for  an  illustrative  quotation  from  a  writer  who  covers  ignorance 
of  scientific    fact   with    high-soundinp:    words. 

"Cf:  (130,  29,  72,  19).  G.  H.  Mead  and  Dewey  both  point  out  that  thinking  goes 
on  in  symbolic  terms.  Language  is  a  form  of  gesture,  but  highly  complex  and  inte- 
grated. It  is  preparatory  to  activity  of  a  grosser  ("explicit")  kind.  "Meanings," 
"interpretations,"  "adaptations"  are  carried  in  symbolic  terms  (sensory  and  imaginal 
at   root)    but  functionally  organized  around  methods   of  adjusting   to   the   world   about   ua. 

[58] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

that  the  Latins  do  not  compare  with  the  Americans  at  all  favor- 
ably. 

To  test  the  influence  that  the  zero  scores  might  have  on  the 
correlations  of  alpha  against  grade  location  (as  the  best  single 
criterion  outside  the  test),  all  eases  having  zero  scores  in  any  of 
these  four  tests  were  thrown  out  and  the  results  correlated  with 
grade.  The  S.  J.  Italians  who  were  used  as  a  sample  for  the 
Latins,  gave  r  of  .64  and  the  S.  J.  Americans,  r  of  .57.  The  alpha 
still  remains  a  better  measure  of  educability  than  the  beta. 

It  is  difficult  to  devise  a  test  in  performance  which  is  com- 
pletely analagous  with  a  verbal  test,  since  the  mental  processes 
making  for  success  in  the  latter  are  difficult  to  put  over  into  tasks 
required  in  a  performance  scale.  Stockton  (102)  has  tried  to 
show  experimentally  that  there  are  two  levels  of  mental  perform- 
ance. On  the  basis  of  his  results  it  is  clear  why  the  alpha  may 
have  proved  too  difficult  for  the  Latins.  It  was  not  language,  but 
ability,  that  brought  out  the  lower  scores. 

So  on  the  other  hand,  with  beta  and  the  Americans.  The 
motor-perceptual  features  of  this  test  might  operate  to  handicap 
the  brighter  children  of  this  group,  or,  as  was  likely  the  case,  the 
test  battery  proved  much  too  easy  to  differentiate  them  in  certain 
of  the  items,  as  tests  I,  II  and  possibly  VII.  This  inadequacy  of 
beta  for  the  Americans  made  for  more  homogeneity  in  the  group 
than  the  facts  really  warranted.  This  lowered  the  C.  T.  and  dis- 
persion possible  in  another,  but  better,  test,  and  also  caused  the 
lowering  of  the  correlation  of  beta  against  alpha. 

With  the  beta  differentiating  the  Latin  groups  fairly  well,  the 
significant  thing  then  is  that  alpha,  the  verbal  test,  proves  so  diag- 
nostic of  their  abilities  in  spite  of  its  nature.  We  have  seen  that 
in  teachers'  estimates  of  intelligence  and  school  work,  in  grade 
location,  the  Latins  lie  below  the  Americans,  and  so  in  the  mental 
tests  themselves.  While  the  overlapping  of  the  Latins  and  Ameri- 
cans even  in  beta  is  slight,  the  fact  that  with  the  Latins  the  corre- 
lations of  the  alpha  against  the  outside  criteria  is  uniformly  high, 
goes  to  prove  that  the  wider  overlapping  of  the  alpha  is  a  much 
truer  picture  of  the  facts.  Had  the  beta  test  been  just  to  the 
Americans,  the  overlapping  there  would  have  been  similar  to  that 
in  the  alpha. 

The  up-shot  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the  alleged  language 
handicap  of  the  Latins  simpl}^  does  not  exist  to  the  extent  imagined. 
All  the  measures  used  in  this  thesis  prove  the  contrary,  and  only 

[59] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

with  the  very  youngest  pupils  and  these  newly  immigrated  could 
it  play  an  extreme  but  rather  temporary  role.  The  writer  stands 
firmly  on  the  ground  that  the  cause  of  school  difficulties  must  be 
found  in  the  more  innate  intellectual  differences.  If  the  differ- 
ences are  language  ones,  then  even  with  the  obvious  handicap  of 
the  beta  for  the  Americans,  the  Latins  ought  to  far  outreach  them 
in  beta. 

Other  studies  have  confirmed  the  same  findings,  Dickson  (31) 
found  that  the  Median  I.  Q.  of  23  Portuguese  first  grade  pupils 
was  84,  that  for  37  Spanish- Americans,  78,  and  for  Italians,  84.  In 
comparable  groups,  the  I.  Q.  of  63  pupils  of  Northern  and  Western 
European  descent,  was  105.5.  The  survey  of  X  County,  in  Cali- 
fornia (133)  demonstrated  that  feeble-minded  children  were  sev- 
eral times  as  numerous  among  the  Latin  groups  similar  to  these 
(in  part  the  same)  studied  here,  as  among  the  "native"  American 
stock.  The  number  of  delinquents  and  offenders  in  prison  for 
these  groups  far  ovitnumbers  their  relative  percentages  in  the  popu- 
lation (114,  134).  Roll  (114)  made  a  study,  under  Terman's 
direction,  of  119  Portuguese  children  in  Santa  Clara  and  found 
that  these  children  had  a  median  I.  Q.  of  about  86. 

Murdock  (76)  in  a  study  of  certain  grades  in  the  public  schools 
of  New  York  City,  showed  that  the  Italians  did  more  poorly  than 
any  other  of  the  three  groups  studied.  These  groups  included 
"native"  Americans  (not  of  the  best,  but  of  lower  middle  class 
families),  Hebrew  and  Italians  of  first  and  second  generations  in 
this  country,  and  Negroes.  The  overlapping  of  the  12-year-old8 
studied  revealed  that  13.5  per  cent  of  the  Italians  exceeded  the 
median  for  the  Hebrews,  50  per  cent  of  the  Amricans,  and  33.33 
per  cent  of  the  Negroes.  The  Italian  group  was  selected  so  as  to 
eliminate  the  poorer  pupils  or  those  thought  to  be  handicapped 
with  language  difficulties,  while  in  the  other  groups  the  pupils 
were  taken  as  they  came.  The  test  was  not  a  performance  test, 
but  since  the  pupils  suffering  from  language  handicap  wert^  not 
selected,  the  (luestion  of  the  nature  of  the  test  in  that  regard  may 
be  ignored.  The  important  thing  is  that  the  Hebrews,  who  had 
been  no  longer  in  this  country  than  the  Italians,  did  as  well  as  the 
"native"  Americans,  while  the  Italians  did  not  equal  the  Negroes, 
Murdock 's  results  are  particularly  confirmatory  of  those  of  the 
present  thesis. 

Brown  (18)  has  recently  added  another  study  of  the  intelli- 
gence of  various  nationality  groups.     He  found  the  median  I.  Q, 

[60] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

for  51  Italians  around  77.  The  Italian  group  with  which  he 
worked,  however,  was  of  very  low  mental  calibre  throughout. 
Pintner  and  Keller  (82)  report  the  median  I.  Q.  of  the  Italians 
whom  they  studied  as  84.  In  their  group  the  Italian  seemed  to 
be  of  higher  level.  Brown's  group  contained  76  per  cent  who  were 
below  the  normal  for  their  age,  and  this  is,  as  he  pointed  out,  the 
principal  cause  of  the  school  retardation. 

If  the  matter  of  school  success  with  these  Latin  children  is 
environmental,  then  the  longer  they  remain  in  school  the  better 
their  condition  mentally  ought  to  become,  for  the  influences  of 
home  would  be  overcome. 

Thomson  (118)  recently  made  a  study  of  the  same  pupils  who 
had  been  tested  by  Dickson,  some  three  to  five  years  earlier,  to 
discover  if  the  school  conditions  had  improved  the  I.  Q.  ratings 
of  the  pupils.  She  worked  with  a  group  that  consisted  of  children 
of  Latin  origin  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  North  European  descent 
on  the  other.  After  correcting  the  first  I.  Q.'s  for  the  discrepan- 
cies of  chronological  age  that  the  re-testing  uncovered,  she  found 
that  the  average  change  in  the  I.  Q.  downward  was  slightly  greater 
for  the  Latins  than  for  the  Americans.  On  the  whole  the  I.  Q. 
remained  very  constant,  however.     She  says  (p.  88)  : 

It  seems  that  as  a  whole  the  tests  are  as  accurate  a  judgment  of  the  mental 
ability  of  the  low  foreign  element  as  of  the  American  children.  .  .  .  Fur- 
thermore the  fact  that  the  central  tendency  of  change  is  almost  as  low  on  the 
minus  side  for  the  South  Europeans  as  for  the  other  groups,  tends  to  show  that 
they  are  really  of  low  intelligence;  had  language  difficulty  caused  the  first 
low  median,  the  central  tendency  of  change  would  now  be  plus.  It  seems 
evident  that  although  the  tests  do  involve  the  use  and  understanding  of  lan- 
guage, low  scores  result  not  from  failure  to  understand,  but  from  failure  to 
comprehend. 

One  further  check  on  the  reliability  of  a  language  test  to  diag- 
nose the  mental  capacity  of  the  foreign  children  was  made.  All 
the  Italians  who  were  born  in  Italy  were  thrown  together  into 
correlation  arrays  of  alpha  against  grade  location,  and  beta  against 
grade  location.  In  these  children,  surely,  if  anywhere,  the  lan- 
guage handicap  ought  to  come  out.  The  correlation  of  beta  against 
grade  situation  was  .72 ;  for  alpha  against  the  same  criterion,  it 
was  .76.  While  the  P.  E.'s,  .05  and  .04  respectively,  mean  that 
another  sample  might  show  results  practically  identical,  it  still 
Remains  pertinent  that  the  verbal  test  is  as  good  a  measure  of  the 
mental  ability  of  these  children  as  is  the  non-verbal,  if  not  better, 
and  even  with  the  children  who  have  been  in  this  country  not  over 

[61] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

five  or  six  years.     This  ought  to  dispel  any  further  doubts  as  to  the 
answer  to  the  problem  which  we,  at  the  outset,  put  before  us. 

In  general  summary  of  this  chapter  we  may  lay  down  the 
following  facts : 

1.  The  Latin  pupils  in  our  sample  are  decidedly  inferior  to 
the  American  children  in  general  intelligence  when  measured  by 
the  teachers'  estimates,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  tendency  of  the 
instructors  to  over-rate  the  Latins. 

2.  The  Latins  are  likewise  inferior  to  the  Americans  in  their 
school  work,  though  here  as  in  (1)  they  are  over-rated.  In  both 
(1)  and  (2)  the  mean  difference  between  the  Americans  and  the 
Latins  is  between  one-seventh  and  one-eighth  of  the  total  range 
of  the  scale  upon  which  they  were  rated. 

3.  In  grade  location  the  Latins  lie  on  the  average  nearly  two 
grades  below  the  modal  grade  for  the  Americans.  If  it  be  thought 
that  the  average  I.  Q.  of  the  American  group  in  its  modal  grade 
be  100,  then  the  average  I.  Q.  for  the  Latins  would  be  near  83, 
assuming  that  all  the  children  were  graded  according  to  their 
abilities. 

4.  The  economic  status  of  the  groups  differs  Mndely,  but  the 
mean  intelligence  score  of  the  children  whose  parents  were  classi- 
fied indicates  that  there  is  a  rough  relation  between  occupational 
status  of  the  parents  and  the  general  intelligence  of  their  offspring 
in  the  public  schools.  The  mental  tests  show  some  correlations 
with  the  occupational  ratings.  If  not  large,  these  are  at  least 
indicative  of  a  certain  disposition  of  the  occupational  level  to 
reflect  the  general  ability  of  the  families. 

5.  The  psychological  results  show  in  the  case  of  alpha:  (a) 
Considerable  difference  in  the  C.  T.  and  in  the  variability.  Not 
only  do  the  Americans  outrank  the  Latins  on  the  average,  but  they 
are  also  much  more  variable,  (b)  The  measurement  of  overlapping 
reveals  that  about  7.0  per  cent  of  the  Italians  exceed  the  median 
performance  of  the  Americans  in  alpha.  For  the  other  Latins  the 
per  cent  exceeding  the  American  median  is  still  less.  Only  1.0 
per  cent  or  less  exceed  the  upper  25  per  cent  of  ability  of  the 
Americans. 

6.  Like  results  for  beta  show:  (a)  That  the  Americans  signifi- 
cantly outstrip  the  Latins  even  in  the  performance,  non-verbal 
test  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  beta  does  not  differentiate 
the  abilities  of  the  Americans.  This  latter  makes  the  variability 
of  the  Americans  slightly  less  than  in  the  Latins,  but  not  greatly 

[62] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

different,  (b)  The  overlapping,  while  greater  than  with  the  alpha, 
shows  that  but  from  11.5  to  16.1  per  cent  of  the  Latins  exceed  the 
mean  of  the  Americans,  and  but  from  5.5  to  7.0  per  cent  of  the 
former  exceed  the  upper  25  per  cent  of  the  latter.  Even  if  one 
accepts  the  beta  results  as  a  true  picture  of  the  comparative 
mental  capacities,  the  results  would  still  indicate  extremely  large 
differences  in  native  ability  as  measured  by  the  tests. 

7.  The  correlational  results  indicate:  (a)  That  the  alpha  and 
beta  are  fairly  comparable  tests,  but  that  the  alpha  as  measured 
by  correlations  with  the  best  outside  measures  of  school  success 
and  of  general  intelligence  is  somewhat  better  for  diagnosis  of 
mental  ability  even  with  the  Latins  than  is  the  beta.  Only  in  the 
case  of  the  Spanish-Mexicans  where  the  general  level  of  ability 
is  low  and  does  not  reach  into  those  abilities  demanded  by  the 
alpha  throughout,  does  the  beta  show  up  more  favorably  than  the 
latter.  For  pupils  as  inferior  as  these,  either  of  two  scales  ought 
to  be  applied :  a  performance  similar  to  beta,  or  a  verbal  test, 
more  commensurate  with  their  mental  ages.  There  is  evidence 
from  the  correlations  of  the  individual  alpha  tests  against  grade 
location,  that  the  language  handicap  does  not  operate  beyond  what 
it  would  in  terms  of  mentality  and  that  a  good  verbal  test  fitted 
to  their  intelligence  would  serve  for  segregation  and  prediction 
better  than  a  non-verbal.  For  that  matter,  this  same  comment 
applies  to  all  the  Latin  groups. 

8.  In  conclusion,  the  writer  believes  that  he  has  shown :  (a) 
That  the  alleged  language  handicap  does  not  in  fact  exist  in  the 
case  of  the  children  of  South  European  descent,  to  the  great  extent 
imagined.  It  serves  as  a  handicap  chiefly  for  those  newly  arrived 
in  this  country,  but  of  these,  those  who  have  the  capacity  do 
acquire  the  tools  rapidly  and  those  who  have  not  the  capacity 
remain  on  a  lower  level  of  ability."  (b)  That  the  true  difficulty 
is  one  of  mental  capacity,  or  general  intelligence,  which  makes  the 
Latins  unable  to  compete  with  the  children  of  North  European 


"  Borncamp  (13)  in  his  study  of  Orientals  in  California  showed  that  as  soon  as 
these  children  acquire  the  rudiments  of  English  they  forge  ahead  in  their  school  work. 
The  Orientals  seem  to  compare  very  well  with  the  older  American  population  in  abilitT'. 
Cf:    Yeung's  study  of  Chinese  children  in   San  Francisco    (140). 

Jordan  (54)  dealt  with  almost  exclusive  North  European  stocks  in  his  thesis.  Th« 
tests  he  used  were  not  general  intelligence  tests,  but  single  psychological  tests  of  differing 
diagnostic  value.  He  showed  no  correlations  with  outside  criteria  and  no  degree  of 
overlapping.  He  emphasizes  strongly  the  influence  of  the  language  handicap.  Brown  (18) 
on  the  other  hand  remarks  :  "It  was  found  that  after  a  child  had  attended  an  American 
school  for  one  or  two  years,  he  tested  as  high  (on  the  Binet)  by  employing  the  English 
language  as  by  using  his  native  tongue."  In  the  present  study  the  12-year-old3  had 
been  at  least  five  years  in  attendance  in  the  public  schools  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
cases,   in   which   latter  the  language  handicap    did   not  operate  anyway. 


[63] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

ancestry  in  the  mastery  of  the  traditional  American  public  school 
curriculum,  (c)  If  the  facts  of  mental  heredity  be  taken  as  valid, 
these  findings  throw  great  light  on  the  problems  of  racial  mental 
differences.  The  writer  does  not  assume  that  these  samples  studied 
here  are  typical  of  all  South  Italians,  Portuguese,  and  Spanish- 
Mexicans,  but  for  the  classes  of  people  studied  he  does  maintain 
that  the  results  are  significant.  Discussion  of  the  bearing  of  these 
findings  on  questions  of  school  policy,  of  immigration,  race  mixture 
and  the  theory  of  racial  differences  will  be  handled  in  the  following 
chapter. 


[64] 


CHAPTER  IV.  THE  APPLICATIONS  OF  THE  DATA  TO 

THE  PROBLEMS 

1.  Modification  of  School  Policy  and  Curriculum 

With  the  data  concerning  the  intelligence  of  the  children  of 
South  European  descent  before  us,  what  changes  in  the  educational 
program  must  be  made  to  cope  more  adequately  with  these  facts? 
This  section  will  deal  briefly  with  a  review  of  the  educational 
changes  which  are  essential. 

One  need  not  raise  the  question  of  innate  endowment  versus 
environment  as  the  chief  cause  of  mental  differences  when  dealing 
with  practical  school  problems  of  the  foreign  children.  First  of 
all,  the  problem  for  the  school  administrator  is  not  fundamentally 
one  of  race  but  of  the  educability  of  all  the  pupils  with  whom  he 
has  to  deal.  Of  course,  if  the  bulk  of  the  mentally  retarded  in 
any  given  school  system,  as  San  Jose,  turn  out  to  be  of  Latin 
stock,  then  in  one  sense  the  question  does  involve  racial  differences. 
The  comparable  point,  however,  for  the  country  at  large  is  this: 
If  the  stream  of  immigration  from  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe 
continues  to  inundate  us,  the  schools  must  take  into  account  the 
mental  abilities  of  the  children  who  come  from  these  racial  groups. 
Without  attempting  to  say  whether  a  few  generations  of  residence 
in  this  country  will  raise  the  average  intelligence  of  the  peasant 
peoples  who  come  to  the  United  States,  the  truth  remains  that  the 
mass  of  the  Southern  European  immigration  of  South  Italian, 
Portuguese  and  Spanish  extraction,  and  the  Mexican  immigration 
from  our  neighboring  republic  bring  us  retarded  material  which 
the  public  schools  have  to  handle.  So  long  as  entrance  into  this 
country  is  unrestricted,  the  schools  will  have  an  ever-recurring 
horde  of  such  pupils  to  deal  with,  including  the  first  and  possibly 
second  generations  after  arrival  here.  The  present  situation  is 
already  causing  a  revamping  of  the  curriculum  and  the  general 
educational  policy  in  many  school  systems. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  differences  in  mental  ability  revealed 
in  such  samples  as  studied  here  applies  to  the  bulk  of  the  source 
of  our  immigration  from  South  Europe  and  the  inheritance  of 
mental  endowment,  as  revealed  in  the  tests,  be  taken  for  granted, 
or  even  as  a  prominent  factor,  then  the  educational  policy,  even 

[65] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

with  the  restriction  of  immigration,  would  have  to  continue  in  a 
modified  form  to  care  for  the  on-coming  generations  from  these 
inferior  stocks.  Hence,  whatever  the  theoretical  and  sociological 
phases  be,  for  the  school  man  now,  they  are  of  the  same  conse- 
quence.    What  he  wants  to  know  is  how  and  ivhat  to  do  today. 

The  alterations  will  be  treated  under  the  headings :  (A)  new 
school  policy;  (B)  administrative  and  supervisional  changes;  (C) 
curriculum  changes  accompanied  by  changes  in  teaching  practice 
to  go  with  them;  (D)  a  public  conscience  and  co-operation  with 
the  schools. 

A.  New  Educational  Policy. 

The  school  systems  investigated  in  this  study  are  not  unlike 
the  majority  of  those  of  similar  size  throughout  the  country.  There 
has  been  a  tendency  toward  a  business  organization  of  the  admin- 
istration in  terms  of  the  educational  status  quo.  The  assumption 
has  been  that,  so  far  as  the  elementary  schools  are  concerned, 
barring  a  few  minor  changes,  the  old  curriculum  and  the  old 
organization  have  proved  adequate.  There  has  been  little  tendency 
to  think  of  the  educational  program  in  terms  of  objectives  in  edu- 
cation, in  terms  of  the  mental  abilities  of  the  materials  with  which 
the  teachers  have  to  work,  or  to  consider  modifications  in  the  course 
of  study  and  the  school  procedure. 

A  new  policy  must  grow,  not  out  of  arm  chair  discussion,  but 
from  a  careful  sociological-educational  survey  of  the  localities,  the 
economic  life  of  the  inhabitants,  what  the  children  of  the  present 
will  be  doing  in  later  life  in  industry  and  agriculture  or  business. 
And  most  important,  must  be  investigated  the  general  levels  of 
intelligence  in  the  school  population  that  are  to  be  instructed." 

B.  Administrative  and  Supervisional  Changes. 

The  notion  that  we  must  have  a  common  school  organization 
for  all  pupils  must  be  given  up.  In  order  to  care  for  the  facts  of 
individual  differences,  two  general  schemes  are  put  forward : 

i.  Standardized  intelligence  tests  should  be  applied  throughout 
the  elementary  schools.  While  it  is  true  that  there  are  no  very 
reliable  group  tests  for  individual  diagnosis  in  the  lower  grades 
yet  available,  there  are  some  scales  that  serve  well  enough   for 


"  Since  the  above  wa3  written  a  new  superintendent  has  taken  over  the  control  of 
the  San  Jose  schools,  and  so  far  as  this  community  is  concerned  we  may  look  for  rather 
radical  changes  in  school  policy.  The  new  executive  is  already  carrying  out  some  of  th« 
recommendations   of   thia   chapter. 

[66] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

group  classification."  Furthermore,  Binet  tests,  teachers'  esti- 
mates, knowledge  of  emotional  features,  analysis  of  home  condi- 
tions and  social  status,  will  give  good  clues  to  individual  treatment 
in  the  doubtful  cases.  Violent  reclassification  can  not  be  brought 
to  pass  over  night,  and  the  logical  places  to  commence  in  San  Jose, 
for  example,  are  in  the  schools  so  overwhelmingly  Latin  in  popula- 
tion. In  the  case  of  the  communities  like  Santa  Clara,  Milpitas, 
Half  Moon  and  South  San  Francisco,  where  the  school  system  is 
smaller,  the  administrative  detail  is  not  so  difficult  for  the  super- 
intendent. Since  the  matter  is  one  of  relative  educability,  the  ' 
approach  is  only  suggested  from  the  side  of  the  schools  predomi- 
nantly foreign  because  it  is  there  that  the  largest  numbers  of  the 
backward  are  found. 

ii.  After  the  testing  of  the  children  with  group  and  individual 
tests  had  been  undertaken,  reorganization  within  the  teaching  and 
supervisory  units  must  be  made.  There  are  several  schemes 
already  in  vogue  in  certain  cities,  any  of  which  might  prove,  with 
local  modification,  applicable."  Any  plan  must  provide  at  least  • 
for  three  classes  of  pupils,  the  mentally  retarded,  the  normal,  and 
the  superior."  School  people  and  the  public  at  large  must  learn 
to  give  up  the  idea  that  uniform  progress  through  the  curriculum 
is  possible  for  groups  of  pupils  of  varying  abilities. 

If  in  any  given  school  sj'stem  it  were  discovered  that  the  influx 
of  children  born  abroad  constituted  an  immediate  problem,  special  • 
classes  in  English  should  be  centrally  located  where  these  pupils 
could  receive  instruction  in  small  groups  in  the  mastery  of  English. 
Here  performance  tests  might  well  be  employed  for  tentative  classi- 
fication of  the  new  comers  according  to  native  endowment.  After 
given  periods  of  instruction,  other  tests  might  be  used,  and  as  the 
pupils  proved  their  capacity  and  gained  the  use  of  the  English 
tools,  they  could  be  shifted  into  their  proper  places  in  the  regular 
organization. 


"It  is  still  an  open  question  eis  to  what  constitutes  •"normal"  intelligence.  Doll  (32) 
has  recently  attacked  this  problem  with  considerable  data  upon  which  to  base  his  facts. 
Terman  (113)  differs  from  Doll.  There  is  serious  need  of  qualitative  studies  upon  gen- 
eral intelligence.  Purely  quantitative  approach  can  not  succeed  without  its  companion 
method.  Cf:  Boring  (12)  for  a  severe  criticism  of  the  present  measurement  of  intel- 
ligence 

'"'  Cf :  (71)  for  general  treatment  of  present  methods  of  dealing  with  the  exceptienal 
children  in  our  schools.  Cubberley  (24)  has  a  brief  discxission,  with  references,  io  the 
Batavia,  North  Denver,  Pueblo,  Cambridge  and  other  schemes  of  classification.  Wright 
(138)  has  described  what  has  been  done  in  Newton,  Mass.,  to  accommodate  those  pupils 
with  high  school  work,  fitted  to  their  abilities,  but  who  are  unable  to  master  the  tradi- 
tional   high   school   courses. 

*"Cf:  (43)  for  a  recent  criticism  of  mental  age  classification  in  public  schools. 
There  is  much  work  yet  to  be  done  before  completely  satisfactory  group  tests  are  at 
hand  upon  which  to  classify  children.  Some  adverse  critics,  however,  seem  to  forget 
the  remarkable   progress   we  have  already   made  in  this   direction. 

[67] 


Menial  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

The  kindergarten  has  been  one  of  the  great  blessings  in  schools 
where  the  foreigners  attend.  It  furnishes  our  most  vital  nexus 
between  home  and  school.  For  the  younger  children  just  about  to 
enter  school  it  serves  as  a  preparatory  stage  in  overcoming  the 
language  factor  from  homes  where  this  still  plays  a  part.  It  is 
said  that  the  Italian  and  Portuguese  mothers  "dump"  their  off- 
spring on  the  kindergarten  because  it  is  a  convenient  place  to  leave 
them  while  they  go  to  work.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  important 
that  the  opportunity  for  building  up  bonds  between  the  foreigners 
and  the  schools  lies  right  here.  Emphasis  should  be  put  on  the 
importance  of  the  kindergarten  for  formal  education  and  also 
Americanization. 

iii.  Standardized  pedagogical  tests  should  be  introduced. 
Through  these  and  supervision  a  constant  check  should  be  kept  on 
the  educational  product.  The  present  methods  of  teaching,  even 
the  out-worn  course  of  study,  probably  do  not  yield  the  educational 
results  they  might.  With  the  introduction  of  re-grading  and  a 
new  curriculum,  pedagogical  objective  will  become  more  definite 
and  hence  thfe  need  of  checking  these  at  critical  intervals  for  the 
evaluation  of  the  new  organization. 

iv.  The  methods  of  testing,  both  psychological  and  pedagogical, 
require  for  effective  administration  the  employment  of  a  research 
director  for  the  schools.  In  a  city  the  size  of  San  Jose  such  a 
scheme  is  possible.  With  a  present  budget  of  $5,000  per  annum, 
$3,000  for  salary  of  research  director  and  $2,000  for  maintenance 
and  materials,  a  tremendous  saving  could  be  effected  in  the  whole 
educational  process.  With  nearly  6,000  children  in  the  elementary 
schools,  this  would  mean  a  yearly  expenditure  of  about  85  cents 
per  child,  or  less  than  one-half  a  cent  a  day  per  child  for  the  im- 
provement of  his  instruction.  Much  more  than  this  amount  would 
be  saved  by  the  realignment  of  pupils  on  the  basis  of  ability  alone." 

C.  The  Curriculum. 

The  curriculum  is  the  crux  of  the  matter!  Given  a  range  of 
abilities  measuring  from  those  represented  by  the  lowest  25  per  cent 
of  the  Latins  to  those  found  in  the  upper  25  per  cent  of  the  non- 
Latins,  what  must  be  done  to  make  the  content  of  education  more 
commensurate  with  the  abilities  of  these  pupils  ?     The  final  answer 


"  With  very  little  additional  outlay,  say  $1200  a  year  for  an  assistant  and  a  slipht 
increase  for  clerical  aid,  one  research  director  could  cover  the  needs  not  only  of  the 
San  Jose  schools  but  the  schools  of  the  smaller  towns  like  Santa  Clara  which  cluster 
around  it,  and  though  separated  by  political  boundaries,  are  economically  and  geograph- 
ically  extensions   oC   San    Jo.-^e. 

[68] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

can  only  grow  out  of  empirical  experience,  but  the  following 
propositions  may  be  laid  down  as  essential: 

i.  The  principles  of  curriculum  making  must  take  into  account 
the  need  of  preparation  of  the  children  for  their  proper  economic 
life  activities  in  accordance  with  their  abilities."  Furthermore,  the 
intellectual  and  moral  heritage  of  the  past  must  be  given  them, 
so  far  as  they  can  assimilate  it.  This  will  include  first  a  training 
for  occupational  efficiency,  technique  and  habits  of  work;  second, 
such  habits  and  attitudes  as  make  for  social  co-operation  in  politi- 
cal, economic  and  social  organization,  and  also  personal  habits  of 
efficient  living,  and  third,  training  for  appreciation  of  the  content 
of  the  arts  and  sciences  for  satisfaction  and  happiness.  The  rich- 
est capitalization  of  capacities  possible  for  each  child,  independent 
of  economic  background  of  family  or  of  social  prestige! 

ii.  The  public  and  the  school  authorities  must  recognize  the 
profound  differences  in  the  educability  of  the  children  who  come 
to  the  schools.  We  are  rapidly  giving  up  the  notion  that  all  are 
of  equal  ability  or  of  equal  educability.  The  ideal  that  education 
wipes  out  all  differences  must  be  modified  and  the  older  notion  of 
Plato,  if  you  please,  adopted,  that  education  is  for  selection.  The 
training  in  technique  and  information  it  provides,  but  only  to 
those  who  are  able  to  take  it  (cf :  80). 

With  this  point  in  view,  the  school  authorities  may  well  go 
ahead  to  re-make  the  curriculum  in  terms  of  the  abilities  and  needs 
of  the  pupils  in  its  system.  For  those  of  average  and  better  than 
average  ability,  the  curriculum  may  include  much  of  the  older 
materials,  reorganized  albeit  to  fit  the  modern  needs,  for  those  who 
do  not  possess  the  capacities  of  the  average  school  child,  the  cur- 
riculum must  provide  vocational  training,  and  skills  which  will 
allow  their  best  abilities  to  express  themselves. 

Society  through  its  schools,  however,  must  guard  against  the 
narrow  meaning  of  "practical"  education.  Training  which  will 
afford  the  greatest  possible  economic  independence  and  social  com- 
petence for  these  levels  of  intelligence  must  be  given.  For  ex- 
ample, training  for  skill  in  a  highly  specialized  part-process  of 
manufacturing  only  is  bad  practice.  It  may  mean  skilled  work- 
men and  higher  profits  in  industry  but  it  is  not  a  complete  educa- 
tion even  for  people  mentally  below  par.     There  is  some  danger 


**  Such  principles  are  laid  down  in  Dewey,  Bobbitt,  Bonser,  Snedden,  and  others. 
While  these  men  have  laid  down  the  principles  of  curricula  makinpr,  none  of  them  has 
recognized  the  tremendously  important  matter  of  native  endowment  of  the  school  popu- 
lation  for  which   any   griven  curriculum   is   made. 


[69 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

that  the  facts  of  individual  differences  may  be  abused.  A  sane 
social  ethics  must  correct  this  contingency  (30). 

iii.  The  content  of  the  curriculum  for  all  three  groups  needs 
re-making.  Recent  studies  and  proposals  are  pertinent  here."  The 
class-room  teachers  and  also  the  principal  and  superintendent 
should  have  a  hand  in  making  the  course  of  study.  For  the  Latin 
groups  especially  the  work  that  has  been  done  in  the  Philippines, 
Hawaii  and  Porto  Rico  should  be  investigated.  There,  much  has 
been  accomplished  to  fit  education  to  the  requirements  of  the  popu- 
lations who  are  of  like  racial  extraction  to  those  considered  here." 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  possession  of  even 
backward  mentality  does  not  preclude  the  possibility  of  consider- 
able appreciation  of  the  arts,  literature,  music  and  cultural  prod- 
ucts for  these  persons.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  all  the  back- 
ward need  is  hand  and  eye  education,  and  to  leave  the  rest  to  those 
of  better  ability.  True  it  is  tl/at  the  production  of  great  pieces  of 
cultitre  as  of  science  comes  largely  from  special  talent  or  superior 
ability,  coupled  with  other  factors,''  yet  the  use  and  enjoyment  of 
these  products  may  be  made  to  reach  the  great  mass  of  mankind. 
There  is  much  in  science,  literature,  art  and  music  that  can  be 
given  these  children  of  backward  ability  in  their  education. 

Observation  by  the  writer,  which  is  confirmed  by  the  library 
officials,  shows  that  the  Latin  children  who  can,  read  great  quanti- 
ties of  books  of  literary  and  mechanical  turn.  This  should  be 
encouraged.  It  is  an  interesting  side-light  on  the  alleged  language 
factor.  The  bulk  of  Italian,  Portuguese  and  Spanish-Mexican 
children  learn  to  speak  English  as  rapidly  as  they  can.  It  is  well- 
known  to  social  workers  that  the  children  of  immigrants  ridicule 
their  parents'  inability  to  speak  English,  and  that  they  themselves 
only  use  the  foreign  tongue  when  the  situation  actually  demands 
it.  These  children  read  English  books,  play  games  with  American 
boys  and  girls,  enter  rapidly  into  American  life.  The  school  but 
serves  as  a  selective  agent.  Those  who  are  mentally  retarded 
remain  in  the  lower  grades  until  they  may  drop  out  of  school,  or 
are  pushed  on  into  grades  beyond  their  abilities,  to  become  serious 
discipline  problems  for  the  teacher. 

With  present  tax  problems  what  they  are,  the  immediate  future 
advances  in  educational  administration  will  run  naturally  to  in- 


"Cf:    (U,   23,   77).     Also  the  files  of  Bureau  of  Education   reports. 

"  Cf :  Bur.  of  Educ.  reports  on  education  in  the  Philippines,  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico. 
Also  Philippine  Craftsman  (Manila),  a  magazine  devoted  to  the  problems  of  education 
for  the  Filipinos.     Cf:   also    (68,   70). 

*'  Cf :    infra    Chap.    V   on   cultural   features. 

[70] 


Meyital  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

ternal  reorganization.  While  building  programs  are  always  pres- 
ent, it  is  not  wholly  unfortunate  that  present  financial  conditions 
are  forcing  the  attention  of  the  boards  of  education  and  the  school 
executives  to  look  to  reorganization  of  teaching,  grading  and  cur- 
riculum for  relief  of  the  school  problems  rather  than  to  mere  ex- 
pansion of  floor  space. 

Given  the  material  equipment  in  buildings,  a  limited  budget, — 
what  can  be  done  to  improve  the  educational  process?  The  most 
efficient  reorganization  of  the  school  system  from  the  inside  will 
proceed  on  some  such  lines  as  are  briefly  outlined  in  this  chapter. 

The  co-operation  of  the  public  in  this  school  problem  must  not 
be  passive.  There  is  a  tendency  in  our  country  to  legislate  reforms 
into  existence  in  the  pious  hope  that  they  will  care  for  and  operate 
themselves  after  they  are  devised.  This  attitude  does  not  reach 
only  the  legislator.  It  is  enlightening  that  the  prominent  mothers 
of  one  of  the  cities  studied  in  this  thesis  who  were  greatly  inter- 
ested in  Americanization  programs  for  the  foreigners,  refused  to 
send  their  own  children  to  the  school  where  the  children  of  these 
foreigners  attended,  but  secured  permits  from  the  superintendent 
of  schools  allowing  their  own  children  to  transfer  to  the  "better" 
schools.     Such  behavior  speaks  much  and  needs  no  comment. 

iv.  Teaching  methods  will  be  accordinglj-  altered  to  fit  the 
needs  of  the  new  classes.  If  much  more  vocational  and  manual 
arts  work  be  introduced,  if  contacts  with  outside  industry  and 
business  be  established  to  care  for  the  older  pupils  wishing  to  go 
over  into  occupations  at  once,  the  flexibility  of  the  school  system 
must  be  much  greater  than  it  is  at  present.  The  project  method 
of  instruction  becomes  strikingly  pertinent  to  a  scheme  of  re-grad- 
ing and  classification  here  outlined.  Its  possibilities  are  just  now 
appearing." 

D.  Public  Conscience  and  Public  Co-operation. 

The  above  is  a  large  assignment  and  can  only  be  carried  out 
slowly.  It  needs  additional  finances,  no  doubt,  and  these  are 
dependent  upon  public  opinion  and  support.  It  is  not  necessary 
at  this  point  to  go  into  the  factors  that  enter  here,  but  it  must  be 


"Cf:  Wells  (139)  on  project  curriculum.  It  ought  to  be  noted  that  if  the  states 
continue  the  movement  to  enforce  education  up  to  sixteen  years  for  all  children,  and 
part-time  education  up  to  eighteen,  the  content  of  the  courses  for  those  who  are  retarded 
or  who  have  dropped  out  of  school  must  be  made  to  fit  their  interests  and  native  abilities. 
For  these  children  the  curricula  must  not  be  patterned  along  traditional  lines.  Cf :  ( 1 ) 
for  outline  on  part-time  education  and  other  references.  On  immigrant  education  cf : 
Thompson  (117).  He  has  little  or  nothing  to  say  concerning  mental  differences  in  the 
immigrant  children  as   a   cause  of  the  educational   problem. 


[71] 


Mental  Differences  m  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

noted  that  until  a  clear  recognition  of  the  place  of  the  school  in 
life  adjustment  is  held  by  the  thinking  public,  and  further  until  a 
willing  co-operation  is  forthcoming,  the  schools  themselves  must 
struggle  on  as  best  they  may  with  the  present  means  at  hand. 

Direct  co-operation  may  be  fostered  by  the  neighborhood  organ- 
izations, public  philanthropic  and  religious  bodies,  but  the  center 
must  be  the  school.  With  the  coming  of  occupational  specializa- 
tion, rapid  communication,  and  general  complexity  of  life,  the 
neighborhood  as  a  social  unit  has  almost  disappeared  in  American 
cities.  This  is  true  even  in  cities  the  size  of  San  Jose.  People 
have  been  freed  from  the  attachment  and  dependence  of  "face  to 
face"  contacts."  Yet  the  school  serves  the  great  purpose  common 
to  us  all,  and  can  be  made  the  rehabilitator  of  those  social  values 
upon  which  our  political  structure  rests.  It  may  be  made  the 
center  of  a  new  neighborhood  spirit. 

The  best  hope  for  the  schools  which  are  organizing  themselves 
along  the  modern  lines  internallj'  is  to  co-operate  with  the  outside 
agencies  of  sociological  nature  who  are  realizing  the  broader  aspects 
of  education  and  citizenship.'"  True,  it  means  a  new  view  of  the 
profession  of  elementary  teaching,  it  means  conscientiousness  on 
the  part  of  the  public  of  which  we  have  no  general  evidence  as 
yet,  but  it  is  in  such  hopes  that  the  practice  of  the  future  is  born. 
Before  all  else,  a  public  conscience  looking  to  an  active  co-operation 
in  making  the  school  the  center  of  the  social  group  life  of  the  mod- 
ern city  or  country,  where  people  may  come  to  enjoy,  in  accordance 
with  their  interests  and  intelligence,  the  cultural  heritages  of 
civilization  and  learn  anew  the  human  values  of  neighborhood 
co-operation  and  common  purpose. 

2.  The  Bearing  of  Our  Findings  on  Problem  of  Racial  Mental 
Differences  and  Immigration 
It  is  not  the  purpose  in  this  section  to  deal  at  length  with  the 
problem  of  racial  differences  or  mental  heredity  in  reference  to 
racial  miscegenation  in  America.  The  writer  has  elsewhere  (144) 
dealt  with  certain  phases  of  the  problem.  We  shall,  however, 
review  briefly  the  anthropological  backgrounds  of  the  South 
Europeans,  then  deal  with  mental  differences,  heredity  and  race 
stocks,  and  finally  with  a  summarizing  statement  on  hybridization 
and  Americanization. 

"Cf:  Younp  (143).  In  this  study  the  writer  described  the  disintegration  of  a 
neighborhood  under  the  influence  of  modern  in'Sustrialism.  The  personal  attachmenta 
almost   completely   disappeared   and   neighborhood   spirit   practically   vanished. 

"^"Cf-    (36)    for   report  of  neighborhood  organization   in   Cincinnati. 

[72] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

A.  The  Anthropological  Backgrounds. 

Anthropologists  are  now  prettly  well  agreed  that  there  are 
today  no  pure  races  in  Europe,  using  race  in  the  strict  sense.  That 
striking  differences  exist  between  the  sub-races,  few  deny.  The 
older  classification  of  European  racial  groupings  gave  three:  Nor- 
dic, characterized  by  blondness  and  dolichocephalic  head-form; 
Alpine,  brachycephalic  brunette  type;  Mediterranean,  dolichoce- 
phalic brunette." 

i.  The  Italian  Racial  Origin.  Italy  as  a  whole  constitutes  a 
pretty  anthropological  problem  into  which  we  cannot  go.  It  is 
now  well-agreed  that  the  basic  stock  of  the  Italian  peninsula  is 
much  more  homogeneous  than  writers  of  a  generation  ago  imagined. 
Between  North  and  South  Italy,  however,  there  are  some  quite 
marked  divergences. 

Ignoring  the  theories  concerning  the  very  oldest  inhabitants 
of  the  peninsula,  recent  researches  have  revealed  a  civilization 
contemporaneous  with  the  Aurignacian  epoch  in  France  from 
which  some  of  the  best  Italian  scholars  maintain  certain  strains 
remain  even  today.  Anthropologically,  however,  there  has  been 
no  continuous  line  of  racial  growth.  There  still  persist  many  dif- 
ficulties unsolved.  Pigorini,  who  has  spent  his  life  at  these  ques- 
tions, believes  that  there  was  a  time  when  suddenly  in  the  midst  of 
the  older  population  appeared  a  "new  people,  whose  usages,  cus- 
toms, arts  and  crafts"  were  totally  exotic.  Racially,  too,  these 
new-comers  must  have  been  a  good  deal  removed  from  the  indige- 
nous folk.  The  following  excerpts  from  Guiffrida-Ruggeri  give 
the  significant  facts  of  the  early  settlers  (48)  : 

These  new  inhabitants  probably  came  originally  from  the  East,  in 
canoes,  and  having  crossed  the  Mediterranean  landed  on  the  southern  shores 
of  the  peninsula,  as  well  as  in  Sicily  and  Sardinia.  .  .  .  They  were  a 
pastoral  people  and  could  in  fact  be  no  other  than  those  who  later  came  to 
be  called  Ligures  (Liguri)  by  the  historians.  .  .  .  The  Siculi  belonged 
evidently  to  the  same  race  as  the  Liguri,  and  physically  they  were  both 
people  of  the  Mediterranean  type.  The  most  ancient  neolithic  population 
of  Sicily,  .  .  .  must  have  come  straight  from  the  Eastern  Mediterranean, 
probably  from  Crete.     .     .     .     The  legend  of  the  "Sicani-Iberi"  invaders  of 

•'  There  has  been  considerable  mixture  of  these  three  types  all  over  Europe.  Retzi\is 
(88)  speakins  of  head- form,  notes  that  all  degrees  from  long-headedness  to  short-headed- 
ness  exist  in  nearly  every  group  of  skulls  or  living  groups  examined  by  anthropometric 
methods  in  South,  Central  and  North  Europe.  Such  variation  is  found  in  pre-historic 
specimens  (Neandertaler  and  others).  Whether  a  given  geographical  area  contains  a 
long-headed  folk  or  otherwise  is  a  matter  of  relative  frequency.  Retzius  shows  that 
Sweden  perhaps  is  the  country  of  the  purest  North  European  sub-race,  yet  the  propor- 
tion of  dolichocephalic  types  to  brachycephalic  types,  in  Sweden,  is  represented  by  87 
per  cent  for  the  former  and  13  per  cent  for  the  latter.  Ripley  (90)  Ch.  10  shows  that 
there  is  tremendous  overlapping  of  types  even  in  Italy.     Cf:  also   (48). 

Boas  has  pointed  out  (9)  that  overlapping  is  a  characteristic  among  races  in  nearly 
every  physical  trait.  It  is  also  true  of  mental  traits.  It  should  be  remarked  in  passing 
that  the  correlation  between  head-form  and  tests  of  intelligence  is  practically  nil;  cf:   (25). 

[73] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Sicily  is  now  put  aside.  Similarities  in  the  western  part  of  Sicily  to  Iberian 
civilization  are  not  lacking,  but  this  is  probably  due  ...  to  "that  great 
wave  of  influence  which  touched  the  coast  districts  of  Western  Europe, 
bringing  with  it  the  dolmen  and  dolmen-pottery"  rather  than  to  actual, 
large  immigration. 

These  invaders  are  now  credited  with  either  an  African  or  at 
least  a  Southeast  Asiatic  origin,  different  from  that  of  the  North 
European  dolichocephalics.  Sergi  it  was  who  first  vigorously- 
championed  the  African  origin  of  the  more  immediate  ancestors 
of  the  Mediterraneans.  He  does  not  think  the  race  was  related  to 
the  Aryans,  at  least  in  any  near  sense,  but  adopted  the  Aryan 
tongue.     He  says  (97,  p.  179)  : 

I  affirm  that  the  Italici,  of  Mediterranean  origin,  were  forced  through 
violent  invasion  to  adopt  the  Aryan  language. 

A  follower  of  Sergi  writes  (15,  p.  30)  : 

The  common  ancestral  home  of  the  race  has  been  placed,  though  there 
is  no  unanimity  as  to  the  exact  locality,  at  tlie  head-waters  of  the  Nile,  or 
at  least  somewhere  south  of  the  Sahara.  This  people  is  supposed  to  have 
crossed  over  into  Europe  by  various  points — Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  Sicily, 
the  Greek  Islands,  and  Asia  Minor — and  spread  over  the  whole  continent 
as  far  as  our  own  islands   (British)   and  Scandinavia. 

Whether  the  meridiom.  are  actually  of  African  origin  or  of 
Asiatic,  via  North  Africa,  is  yet  unsettled.  It  is  significant,  how- 
ever, that  there  seems  to  be  a  shading  off  of  this  stock  into  the 
negroid  types." 

The  new  inhabitants  of  Sicily  and  South  Italy  proper  rose, 
under  Mycenean  and  -^gean  infiuence,  to  great  culture  and  power. 

Speaking  in  broad  cultural  periods,  we  may  say  that  contem- 
poraneous with  the  movement  of  the  Mediterranean  race,  the  races 
later  known  as  Alpine  and  Nordic  were  moving  toward  Western 
Europe.  In  the  sweep  of  the  Alpine  through  Central  Europe 
they  avoided  Italy,  except  in  the  north,  where  some  of  them  com- 
ing over  the  Alps  from  the  lake  dwellings  in  Switzerland  settled 
in  the  marshes  about  Venetia.  The  bulk  of  the  population  in 
North  Italy,  however,  still  remained  the  dolichocephalic  brunette. 
Later  with  pressure  of  the  oncoming  hordes  to  the  east,  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Alpine  types  pushed  on  south  across  the  Po  into 
Emilia  and  even  in  some  instances  over  the  Apennines.  These 
peoples  drove  the  older  inhabitants  before  them  to  the  south  and 
it  is  probable  that  the  later  offspring  of  these  dispossessed  groups 
founded   Rome.     They   did  not   in   any   likelihood   reach   beyond 


"Cf:  (53,  p.  159ff. ).  Johnson  writes:  "There  is  an  ancient  Negroid  strain  under- 
lying the  populations  of  Southern  and  Western  France,  Italy,  Corsica,  Sardinia,  Spain, 
Portugal  .  .  ."  Cf:  also  Reuter  (89)  for  a  brief  review  of  mixed-blood  races. 
Kroeber   (62)   notes  the  fact  of  negroid  strains  in  South  Europe. 

[74] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Latium.  The  brachycephalics  who  drove  the  forerunners  of  the 
Latins  south  became  the  Umbrians  of  ancient  history.  The  Etrus- 
cans, who  have  long  been  an  enigma  (cf :  48,  p.  329  and  90,  ch.  10), 
need  not  detain  us.  The  important  thing  at  this  point  is  simply 
that  the  shock  of  the  Alpine  invasion  into  the  peninsula  in  the 
north  scarcely  affected  Italy  south  of  the  Tiber. 

So,  too,  the  Teutonic  invasions  that  came  later.  It  is  now 
generally  thought  that  the  various  barbaric  hordes  that  swept 
over  the  Mediterranean  territories  were  neither  excessive  in  size, 
nor  always  permanent  in  effect  upon  the  big  bulk  of  the  indigenous 
peoples."  So  far  as  the  racial  mixture  went,  it  spent  itself  as 
Livi  and  modern  anthropologists  have  shown  long  before  it  reached 
even  South-Central  Italy.  Only  scattered  fragments  ever  extended 
to  the  "Toe  and  Heel"  and  into  Sicily. 

There  went  on,  however,  throughout  the  later  historic  periods 
accretion  and  racial  mixture  among  the  peoples  of  South  Italy  and 
Sicily.  Freeman  called  Sicily  "the  meeting  place  of  the  nations." 
The  Greeks  in  the  classic  period,  then  later  than  the  "barbarian" 
invasion,  the  Saracens  and  Normans  contributed  something  to  the 
ethnic  composition  of  the  people.  This  has  resulted  in  physical 
instability  of  type,  and  possibly  instability  of  mental  type,  and 
gave  rise  to  the  further  comment  of  Freeman,  who  wrote:  "For 
the  very  reason  that  Sicily  has  found  dwelling  place  for  so  many 
nations,  a  Sicilian  nation  there  has  never  been."" 

There  are,  in  brief,  two  principal  sub-racial  stocks  in  Italy ;  but 
the  basic  one,  even  in  North  Italy,  is  the  Mediterranean  dolichoce- 
phalic. The  Alpine  influence  is  chiefly  in  the  northern  sections. 
The  actual  amount  of  Teutonic  influence  in  the  masses  of  the  popu- 
lation is  small.  Today  we  realize  that  the  invasions  of  the  past 
were  made  by  relatively  small  groups  who  were  quickly  absorbed 
in  the  native  population,  which  altered  only  slowly.  The  ethnic 
displacement  now  seen  in  the  Americas  could  only  arise  in  view  of 
modern  transportation  and  industrialism.  There  is  nothing  analo- 
gous in  history. 

The  immigration  statistics  inform  us  that  85  per  cent  of  the 


"Cf:  (90),  Ch.  10,  using  data  from  Livi.  Ripley  is  perhaps  slightly  more  sympar- 
thetic  to  the  older  view  that  the  Teutons  influenced  the  population  of  Central  if  not 
Southern   Italy. 

"Quoted  by  Ripley  (90),  p.  271.  It  is  significant  that  Sicily  with  its  heterogeneity 
of  peoples  has  not  turned  out  a  stable  race.  As  we  shall  have  occasion  to  note  in  a 
subsequent  paragraph,  the  "melting  pot"  in  one  sense  is  a  decided  "myth."  To  produce 
a  stable  race,  considerable  isolation  and  inbreeding  are  necessary.  Some  of  the  advocates 
of  a  "free  and  easy"  entrance  of  all  "comers"  into  this  country  have  the  pious  wish  that 
out  of  this  strange  matrix  will  come  ultimately  a  great  people.  They  should  peruse  the 
history  of  some  of  these  "cockpits  of  Europe,"  where  the  contact  of  racial  stocks  haa 
been  most  violent  and  frequent. 

[75] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Italian  immigration  of  the  last  twenty  years  is  from  South  Italy 
and  Sicily.  Its  source  is  the  lowest  economic  classes  and  in  origin 
these  people  are  largely  Mediterranean  with  a  noticeable  negroid 
strain  and  other  exotic  mixtures.  In  the  nature  of  their  racial 
extraction  we  have  a  clue  to  their  mental  status.  These  anthropo- 
logical facts  furnish  us  with  one  probable  cause  of  the  marked 
differences  between  the  children  of  these  immigrants  and  those 
whose  parents  are  of  North  European  ancestry. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  study  is  dealing  with  a 
sample  of  the  South  Italians  and  Sicilians,  not  with  the  peoples 
of  Svuth  Italy  and  Sicily  as  a  whole. 

a.  The  Portuguese  Racial  Backgrounds.  The  sources  of  the 
Portuguese  immigration  into  California  are  three,  and  there  are 
slight  differences  in  the  racial  composition  of  each.  These  three 
are:  (1)  Portgual  proper;  (2)  the  Azores,  Cape  Verde  Islands, 
and  Maderia;  (3)  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  The  majority  of  the 
parents  of  the  children  we  investigated  came  from  (1)  and  (3). 

The  Portuguese  belong  to  a  sub-racial  group  which  is  closely 

allied  in  origin  to  the  Mediterraean  from  which  the  sub-stratum 

of  the  South  Italian  population  arose,  but  it  contains  even  more 

negroid  features  than  the  latter.     During  the  historical  period  the 

population  of  the  Iberian  peninsula  mixed  with  the  invaders  from 

the  North  to  some  extent.     Sergi  comments  (97,  p.  162)  : 

Observations  on  the  modern  populations  of  Spain  and  Portugal  have 
shown  that,  notwithstanding  invasions  from  the  end  of  the  neolithic  period 
and  after  the  beginning  of  the  age  of  metals,  the  primitive  type  of  African 
origin  has  remained  prominent. 

The  report  of  the  Immigration  Commission  (51)  informs  us 
that  most  of  the  migration  from  Portugal  proper  to  the  United 
States  is  from  Galicia  and  North  Portugal,  where  the  stock  is  prob- 
ably somewhat  more  amalgamated  with  the  Alpine  and  Nordic 
strains." 

The  Portuguese  from  the  Azores,  Cape  Verde  and  Maderia 
islands  are  all  more  or  less  recently  mixed  with  African  negroid 
strains  due  to  the  presence  in  these  islands  of  much  black  labor. 
In  the  Azores  there  are  some  Flemish  influences  running  back 
several  centuries.  The  mixture  with  the  Africans  has  probably 
not  enhanced  the  native  ability  of  the  Portuguese  stocks  (21,  p.  90). 
Furthermore  the  Azores  were  at  one  time  a  prominent  penal  colony 


"  There  was  some  Moorish  intrusion  in  historical  times  but  the  extent  of  the  same 
is  difficult  to  estimate.  The  best  sources  in  English  on  the  Portuguese  immigration  ar« 
(21,  93,  142). 

[76] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

for  Portugal  and  the  offspring  of  some  of  the  penal  colonists  mixed 
with  the  remaining  population.  It  would  be  a  sheer  guess  as  to 
the  possible  effect  of  this  strain.  However,  the  difference  between 
the  racial  features  of  the  Portuguese  of  the  islands  and  the  conti- 
nent is  not  marked,  and  the  differences  if  any  are  largely  matters 
of  degree  of  negroid  influence. 

Beginning  about  1880  (68)  the  plantation  owners  of  Hawaii, 
abetted  by  the  Hawaiian  government  of  the  time,  began  importing 
cheap  Portuguese  labor  from  the  islands  just  mentioned,  and  also 
from  Portugal  proper.  At  present  they  constitute  the  majority  of 
the  white  laboring  class  in  Hawaii.  MacCaughey  (68)  has  re- 
ported briefly  on  the  racial  mixture  of  the  Portuguese  with  the 
various  other  races  in  Hawaii,  While  they  have  mingled  rather 
freely,  they  have  not  significantly  altered  their  racial  character- 
istics.    MacCaughey  does  remark,  however: 

An  appreciable  percentage  of  Hawaii's  population  is  more  or  less  in- 
fused with  Portuguese  blood,  as  witnessed  by  tlie  marriages  of  full-blooded 
Portuguese  men  and  women  with  mates  of  mixed  Portuguese  blood. 

In  brief,  while  the  Portuguese  is  not  so  homogeneous  perhaps 
as  the  South  Italian,  he  is  basically  of  the  same  extraction." 

Hi.  The  Spanish-Mexican  Racial  Backgrounds.  Racially  this 
group  is  the  least  homogeneous.  In  it  were  included  a  few  sub- 
jects of  apparently  true  Spanish  origin,  who  came  to  California 
either  directly,  or  via  Hawaii.  But  the  large  majority  of  cases 
studied  were  of  Mexican  origin.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  the 
sub-stratum  of  the  so-called  Mexican  population  is  Amerind." 

The  racial  origins  of  the  Spanish  peoples  are  much  the  same 
as  the  Portuguese  and  South  Italians.  It  is  unlikely  that  there 
is  a  marked  amount  of  either  Nordic  or  Alpine  stock  in  the  mass 
of  the  people.  The  modern  population  is  literally  descended  from 
the  very  ancient  ancestry.  The  slight  amount  of  broad-headed- 
ness  in  the  population  of  certain  Northern  districts  shows  Alpine 
(Celtic)  influence.  It  is  not  extensive.  On  the  whole,  probably, 
the  Spanish  peninsula  is  racially  even  more  homogeneous  than  any 
part  of  Italj%  and  especially  more  so  than  either  North  Italy  or 
Sicily  in  particular. 

In  Mexico  miscegenation  among  various  racial  elements  has 
gone  on  since  the  very  opening  of  the  country  by  the  Spaniards. 


"^  No  attempt  was  made  in  the  present  mass  study  to  segregate  out  the  continental 
Portuftuese  from  the  islanders,  or  to  classify  according  to  possible  negroid  characteristica. 
A  careful  study  of  individual  cases  ought  to  take  these  matters  into  account. 

"Cf:  (56,  90,  92)  Ripley,  p.  464,  mentions  the  homogeneity  of  the  native  Spanish 
stocks  in  the_  New  World.  WaJlis  (126)  has  written  a  brief  paper  on  the  Mexican  immi- 
grant in  California  which  gives  some  facts  on  his  temperament  and  economic  status. 

[77] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Since  in  the  early  settlements  few  Spanish  women  were  found, 
there  grew  up  a  good  deal  of  sex  contact  with  native  women.  The 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  seem  never  to  have  been  opposed  to  mis- 
cegenation with  the  stocks  with  whom  they  came  in  contact.  More- 
over, besides  the  mixture  of  the  Spanish  and  native  Indians,  the 
introduction  of  negro  slavery  into  the  New  World  brought  a  third 
factor  into  the  situation.  Today  the  class  lines  in  Mexico  reflect 
the  race  lines  laid  down  a  century  and  a  half  ago :  At  the  top  are 
the  Spaniards  and  the  Mexicans  of  preponderant  Spanish  extrac- 
tion. These  people  constitute  the  wealth  and  political  basis  of 
the  country.  From  these  peoples  the  United  States  gets  no  per- 
manent colonists.  There  is  no  secure  middle  class  (though  one 
is  said  to  be  arising),  and  the  masses  divide  into  groups  according 
to  the  racial  mixture : 

The  civil  position  of  every  one  depended  mainly  and  naturally  upon 
the  greater  or  less  whiteness  of  their  complexion.  "Todo  bianco  es  cabal- 
lero." 

Of  the  original  elements  which  are  blended  in  the  modern  population 
of  Mexico  from  the  contact  of  races,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly 
four  centuries,  have  arisen  innumerable  combinations  which  cannot  be  fully 
traced  or  classified.  Thus  the  offspring  of  a  European  and  an  Indian  is 
termed  a  mestizo;  of  a  European  and  an  African,  a  mulatto;  of  an  Indian 
and  an  African,  a  zambo  or  chino   (56,  p.  220). 

There  are  of  course  various  intermediate  grades  between  these 
and  the  process  of  mixture  is  still  going  on.  Biologists  and  an- 
thropologists both  look  with  little  favor  on  a  violent  mixture  of 
races  so  divergent  as  some  of  these  elements  are.  It  is  not  impos- 
sible that  part  of  the  socio-economic  difficulties  of  Latin  America, 
especially  Mexico,  are  due  to  the  "character  of  an  unfortunate 
hybrid  race." 

Judgment  as  to  the  constitutional  quality  of  this  population  should  be 
reserved,  however,  until  the  conditions  under  which  it  has  lived  and  de- 
veloped have  been  carefully  scrutinized.  It  is  certainly  important  to  try 
to  appraise  the  Spanish-American  stock,  for  there  has  never  existed  in 
historic  times  any  such  other  experiment  in  the  mixture  of  really  alien, 
races.  ...  In  its  net  results  race-mixture  plus  other  factors  seems 
scarcely  to  have  produced  a  favorable  human  type  in  Spanish-America; 
taken  at  its  very  best  it  has  not  represented  a  striking  success  (56,  p.  219). 

iv.  The  Racial  Backgrounds  of  the  ''American"  Children.  This 
topic  need  not  long  detain  us.  The  bulk  of  the  ancestors  of  the 
children  termed  "Non-Latin"  or  "American"  were  English  and 
German.  There  was  a  slight  scattering  of  Swedish  and  Dutch, 
and  a  few  Scotch.  While  even  in  the  Nordics  there  is  mixture 
with  other  stocks,  the  background  of  the  North  Europeans  is  pretty 

[78] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

generally  Nordic.  The  blond  hair  and  complexion  and  tall  stature 
of  these  children  compared  with  the  brunetness  and  stockiness  of 
the  Latins  stood  out  prominently.  There  has  been  very  little 
mixture  of  the  Latin  and  non-Latin  stocks  in  the  sections  of  Cal- 
ifornia studied.     The  contacts  are  too  recent." 

B.  Mental  Differences,  Heredity,  and  Immigrant  Stocks. 

The  assumption  was  made  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper  that 
there  exists  at  present  a  good  body  of  substantial  scientific  litera- 
ture which  proves  that  mental  traits  tend  to  be  inherited  as  do 
physical  characteristics,  and  that  while  not  every  factor  that  makes 
for  successful  adjustment  in  life  is  to  be  sub-summed  under  the 
category  of  heredity,  that  very  much  in  the  way  of  the  fundamental 
physical  and  intellectual  characteristics  are  carried  in  the  heredi- 
tary germ  plasm  from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  not  denied 
that  environment,  opportunity  and  accident  plaj^  a  varying  role 
in  the  life  adjustments,  but  without  the  potentiality  of  mental 
development  that  is  innate,  these  other  forces  are  of  no  great 
avail  (35). 

A  second  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind.  Mental  differences,  like 
physical  differences,  are  matters  of  degree.  Within  the  groups 
themselves  the  variability  is  greater  than  the  differences  between 
the  separate  races  (120,  p.  224).  Hence  the  question  of  racial 
mixture  of  immigrant  stocks  becomes  not  one  of  one  race  with 
another,  or  of  one  sub-race  \\ath  another  sub-race,  but  of  family 
stocks  of  various  races.  The  present  American  population,  bar- 
ring all  the  accretions  from  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe,  con- 
tains a  considerable  percentage  of  strains  of  low  mentality.  While 
the  average  intelligence  of  the  older  stock  is  high,  the  range  of 
abilities  reaches  from  distinct  feeble-mindedness  on  the  one  side 
to  genius  on  the  other.  So  with  the  New  Immigration,  one  would 
not  imagine  keeping  out  any  particular  racial  group  as  such.  As 
Key  puts  it  (59,  p.  97)  : 

The  vital  point  .  .  .  would  seem  to  be,  not  whether  there  has  been 
amalgamation  in  a  general  sense,  but  what  sort  of  amalgamation  has  re- 
sulted (from  immigrant  stocks).  .  .  .  Heredity  studies  are  showing 
wide  diversity  in  our  native  stocks,  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that,  with 
incoming  strains,  those  of  low  potentiality  inevitably  amalgamate  with  the 
lowest  elements  of  our  native  population,  while  those  of  high  potentiality 
amalgamate  with  the  better  elements. 

"For  references  on  Nordics  cf:  (47,  90).  Madison  Grant's  efforts  to  propagandize 
the  Nordic  view  is  unfortunate.  His  book  is  a  mine  of  information  and  in  the  second, 
revised  edition  his  footnotes  and  bibliopraphic  references  are  very  voluminous.  What 
Grant  fails  to  see  is  the  fundamental  fact  of  overlapping  which  holds  throughout  the 
comparison  of  all  these  groups, — physically  and   mentally. 

[79] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 
Writing  of  race  mixtures,  Salmon  states  (96,  p.  240)  : 

The  component  races  must  be  virile  and  sound;  they  must  not  be  too 
divergent;  the  new  race  must  have  a  period  of  comparative  isolation  and 
inbreeding  to  fix  its  characters;  occasional  crossing  with  selected  races  of 
stock  somewhat  similar  to  the  components  should  occur  from  time  to  time. 
There  are  excellent  examples  of  the  production  of  great  races  when  these 
conditions  have  existed  and  there  are  examples  of  the  pollution  of  very- 
superior  races  when  these  conditions  have  been  lacking.     .     .     . 

East  and  Jones  say  (35,  p.  264)  : 

The  hybridization  of  extremes  is  undesirable  because  of  the  improba- 
bility of  regaining  the  merits  of  the  originals,  yet  the  hybridization  of 
somewhat  nearly  related  races  is  almost  a  prerequisite  to  rapid  progress, 
for  from  such  hybridization  comes  that  moderate  amount  of  variability 
which  presents  the  possibility  of  the  super-individual,  the  genius. 

The  point,  then,  of  racial  amalgamation  in  the  United  States 
is  one  concerning  the  type  of  abilities  represented  in  the  races 
going  into  the  "Melting  Pot."  The  desirable  thing  for  any  nation, 
as  Galton  pointed  out,  is  a  population  possessing  high  average  in- 
telligence and  considerable  variability.  This  in  conjunction  with 
such  breeding  of  the  strains  of  better  than  average  capacity  would 
produce  the  men  and  women  of  above  average  ability  who  would 
not  only  carry  on  the  cultural  progress  and  thus  continue  to  pre- 
pare the  tools  for  the  genius  to  work  with  when  he  appeared,  but 
that  also  out  of  this  high  average  and  somewhat  superior  stock, 
through  inbreeding,  would  come  the  individuals  of  very  superior 
intelligence  whom  society  terms  "geniuses."  It  is,  of  course,  bio- 
logically well  known  that  through  crossing  of  even  mediocre  or 
inferior  stocks  an  occasional  superior  individual  appears.  But  the 
chances  for  the  appearance  of  such  an  exception  are  very  greatly 
less  than  the  chances  that  a  real  genius  will  arise  from  high  average 
families,  if  they  are  kept  uncontaminated  from  inferior  mix- 
tures (35). 

"We  have  passed  the  point  of  a  careful  selection  of  immigrant 
stocks  in  this  country.  We  have  already  enough  bad  biological 
strains  to  serve  as  a  menace  to  the  best  possibilities  for  a  long 
time  (22).  Hybridization  is  taking  place  between  the  racial  stocks 
in  our  country.  That  the  biologically  inferior  tend  always  to  mix 
with  their  kind,  as  Miss  Keys  maintains,  is  not  so.  The  history 
of  the  Jukes,  the  Kallikaks,  the  Nams  and  others  proves  to  the 
contrary.  What  is  true  is  that  consciously  determined  birth  con- 
trol on  the  part  of  the  better  elements  in  the  population  does  take 
place  when  the  economic  opportunities  mean  that  their  offspring 
stand  in  danger  of  such  serious  competition  with  the  less  inferior 

[80] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

as  to  lower  the  former's  standard  of  living.  It  is  precisely  this 
fact  that  makes  the  problem  serious.  If  the  racial  stocks  that  are 
flooding  this  country  from  Southern  and  Southeastern  Europe 
are  of  such  inferiority,  on  the  average,  as  to  be  contented  with  a 
lower  standard  of  life,  if  they  are  incapable  of  taking  on  the  best 
of  modern  culture,  then  the  sociological  significance  of  the  entire 
matter  is  apparent.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  amalgamation  be- 
tween these  stocks  and  the  older  American  stocks  is  certain  to  take 
place,  and  between  different  levels  of  average  intelligence,  we  have 
a  more  serious  phase  of  the  problem  presented  us. 

The  writer  does  not  undertake  to  say  whether  his  findings  are 
typical  of  the  races  from  which  the  samples  spring,  but  he  does 
believe  that  they  are  very  typical  samples  of  the  immigration  that 
actually  does  come  to  this  country  from  these  old  world  countries. 
He  has  already  noted  that  85  per  cent  of  the  total  immigration 
from  Italy  is  from  the  same  source  as  that  from  which  the  largest 
sample  of  Latins  studied  came.  He  is,  however,  cautious  enough 
not  to  deny  that  environmental  opportunities,  as  well  as  chance 
biological  variations,  may  not  in  particular  instances  release  latent 
possibilities  in  certain  strains  in  these  peoples  in  the  future. 

With  the  rapid  incursion  of  racial  stocks  from  Southern  Europe 
has  begun  an  inundation  of  our  older  population  which  will  result 
in  a  racial  amalgamation  of  possibly  serious  consequences.  It  is 
not  a  problem  of  the  mixture  of  the  Latins  in  general  with  the 
Americans,  but  of  those  classes  of  South  Europeans  and  Mexicans 
of  less  average  ability  than  our  own  American  stock  of  the  lower 
middle  classes. 

The  writer  has  dealt  elsewhere  with  the  findings  of  other  in- 
vestigators on  the  problem  of  intelligence  of  immigrant  children 
and  has  there  summarized  his  own  results  (144).  The  discussion 
will  not  be  repeated  here.  The  up-shot  of  the  work  of  others  is  to 
confirm  the  present  investigation.  The  army  results  (73),  the 
work  of  Dickson  (31),  Miss  Thomson  (118),  Miss  Roll  (114)  and 
Murdock  (76),  Brown  (18)  and  the  writer's  study  all  indicate  a 
growing  body  of  information  which  must  not  be  ignored  by  those 
who  would  have  us  admit  all  immigrants  promiscuously  in  the  pious 
hope  that  the  future  will  wipe  out  present  differences :  economical, 
mental  and  social." 

If,  however,  the  language  handicap  be  thought  all-important, 


'*Cf:  also  minor  studies  of  (75).  These  latter  were  by  means  of  unstandardized 
tests  but  are  still  confirmatory  of  the  fact  that  the  Italian  immigrants  do  much  more 
poorly  than  the  Hebrew  or  North  European  immigrants.  Cf:    (106). 


[81] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

we  may  dismiss  the  alpha  results  and  taking  beta,  where  no  such 
accusation  can  be  made,  show  that  the  Americans  still  far  exceed 
the  Latins.  However,  to  ignore  the  verbal-test  results  is  impos- 
sible so  long  as  the  correlation  results  indicate,  as  they  do,  a  high 
relation  between  such  significant  outside  criteria  of  intelligence 
and  school  success  as  grade  location,  teachers'  estimates  of  school 
work  and  of  general  intelligence/" 

One  question  must  be  considered:  Perhaps  the  general  intel- 
ligence of  the  non-Latin  group  is  higher  than  that  of  the  typical 
"American"  population.  We  saw  above"  that  the  "Americans" 
exceed  the  norms  for  their  ages,  and  this  may  indicate  that  the 
sample  of  North  European  descendents  studied  is  somewhat  "above 
average"  for  their  own  group. 

What,  in  conclusion,  is  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the 
present  evidence?  For  the  children  of  the  racial  stocks  here 
investigated,  a  conservative  answer  must  be  that  so  far  as  this 
sampling  goes,  very  wide  differences  exist.  How  much  the  differ- 
ence is  due  to  biological  heredity  and  how  much  to  environment 
is  harder  to  answer.  Extensive  surveys  have  shown  that  mental 
abilities  are,  in  large  measure,  inherited.  One  is  justified  from 
the  scientific  support  of  this  point  to  conclude  that  the  large  part 
of  the  differences  revealed  in  these  measures  are  innate  and  hence 
reflect  but  the  mental  abilities  of  the  family  stocks  and  classes  of 
the  particular  races  from  which  they  came.''  In  brief,  the  evidence 
presented  seems  convincing  that  marked  mental  differences  do 
exist  between  the  type  of  immigrant  stock  from  South  Europe 
that  comes  to  this  country  and  the  older  American  stock.  No  gen- 
eralizations are  attempted  for  the  Italians,  Portuguese  or  Spanish- 
Mexicans  as  a  whole. 

C.  Racial  Hyhridization  and  Americanization. 

There  is  frankly  no  such  thing  as  racial  assimilation.  There 
is  only  racial  amalgamation  (22).  Assimilation  implies  that  a 
parent  stock  may  absorb  another  and  make  the  second  over  to  be 
like  it.  This  is  impossible.  There  is  always  hybridization.  The 
resultant  of  a  mixture  cannot  rise  higher,  biologically  speaking, 

«"  Cf :  supra  Ch.  HI.  Pts.  I  and  H. 

"Cf:  supra  34f.  Had  the  writer  omitted  the  two  "best  schools"  in  San  Jose  from 
his   "American"   group   the  differences  would  not  have  been   so   marked. 

"^  Emotional  and  temperamental  differences  were  not  investigated.  Science  still 
lacks  Kood  measures  for  these,  and  must  resort  to  composite  judgments  of  persons  if 
these  differences  are  to  be  studied.  The  future  will  likely  show  us  that  emotional  char- 
acteristics  are  fundamental  drives  to  intellectual  achievement,  and  divergences  in  races 
may  be  partially,  at  least,  due  to  differences  in  emotional  features.  Cf :  79,  p.  239-40, 
for  comment  on  racial  differences  based  really  on  these  "non-intellectual"  traits. 

[82] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

than  the  source  of  the  lower  of  the  strains  going  into  the  new 
product. 

From  the  biological  viewpoint  the  mixture  of  European  stocks 
as  races  in  the  technical  sense  is  not  a  problem  in  this  discussion. 
The  North  European  and  South  European  are  racially  near  enough 
together  to  inter-marry  with  no  serious  break-down  of  the  effects 
of  previous  inbreeding  (35,  ch.  12).  It  is  rather  the  matter  of 
selecting  the  best  of  both  stocks.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  "Older  Immigration"  also  brought  its  mental  defectives 
and  subnormals.  But  for  today  it  is  a  question  of  relative  num- 
bers and  of  average  variability  of  intelligence.  The  whole  situa- 
tion is  well  put  by  Conklin  (22,  p.  351)  : 

It  is  not  the  mixture  of  the  blood  of  different  European  races  in  this 
country  that  should  cause  concern,  but  rather  the  amalgamation  of  superior 
hereditary  tj'pes  with  those  of  inferior  physical,  mental  and  social  traits, 
from  whatever  country  or  race  they  may  come. 

Our  American  policy  of  immigration  should  revolve  around  an 
appreciation  of  the  significance  of  mental  differences  rather  than 
economic.  Two  new  points  of  view  on  the  part  of  the  public 
opinion  and  the  legislative  bodies  of  this  country  must  come  into 
being.  The  first  concerns  a  changed  attitude  from  quantity  of 
immigration  to  quality,  the  second,  the  control  of  immigration  in 
the  interest  of  real  national  welfare  and  not  immediate  and  parti- 
san (e.  g.,  economic)  exploitation.  Restriction  of  immigration 
should  go  on  in  terms  of  capacity  of  the  immigrants  and  not  of 
their  cheapness  as  laborers.  A  set  of  well-worked  out  physical  and 
psychological  tests  with  norms  could  be  devised  for  a  relatively 
slight  cost  which  would  be  of  untold  benefit  to  the  country's  future 
in  the  way  of  preventing  any  further  flooding  of  our  country  with 
low-grade  materials  on  which  to  build  a  coming  nation.  "We  have 
enough  liability  in  poor  stock  already  without  enhancing  it. 

The  problem  of  Americanization  is  related  to  this  entire  ques- 
tion. While  the  cultural  heritages  from  European  sources  must 
continue  to  be  welcome  to  us,  yes,  even  those  brought  over  by 
the  humble  immigrants,  our  own  cultural  and  civic  values  must 
be  couched  in  such  terms  that  they  will  connect  with  the  Old  World 
traits  (79).  Furthermore,  in  racial  temperament  the  more  re- 
moved European  stocks  may  have  great  contribution  to  make  to 
our  own  Nordic  strains. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  such  masses  continue  to  come  from  the 
poorer  biological  stocks  in  Europe,  as  is  apparently  the  case  (5,  34) 

[83] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

with  much  of  our  "Newer  Immigration,"  the  problem  of  cultural 
values  may  be  immersed  in  lower  standards  of  living,  mental  de- 
fectiveness and  a  general  lowered  toning  of  the  best  in  our  national 
life.  The  picture  is  not  hopeless  unless  we  leave  it  so.  But  our 
traditional  social  laissez  faireism  may  result  in  serious  consequences. 
But  on  the  leaders  and  instigators  of  public  conscience  rest  the 
duties  of  making  evident  the  problem  and  pointing,  after  due 
consideration,  to  its  solution.  Our  present  muddling,  however, 
will  end  in  a  social  morass  unless  we  do  quickly  make  strides  to  free 
our  minds  of  the  popular  and  pleasing  reasoning  which  is  so  dan- 
gerous." 


"  The  writer  refers  to  the  existence  in  our  country  of  certain  false  premises  of 
equality  of  ability  and  a  whole  host  of  credos  which  are  nothing  but  traditional  rational- 
izations. The  real  reasons  we  avoid  and  enjoy  the  good  reasons,  since  they  are  bo  much 
more  pleasant  to  believe  in.  The  latter  furnish  a  basis  for  holding  to  the  past ;  only  the 
former  provide  a  method   of  dealing  sensibly   with   the   future. 


[84] 


CHAPTER  V.  THEORETICAL  IMPLICATIONS:  RACE 
DIFFERENCES  AND  CULTURAL  PROGRESS      i 

The  present-day  discussion  of  the  problems  of  racial  differences 
and  cultural  progress  make  a  short  digression  into  the  implications 
of  the  problem  not  out  of  place.  This  chapter  will  discuss  theories 
of  race  differences  and  culture  and  an  attempted  interpretation  of 
the  problem. 

A.  Theories  of  Race  Differences  and  Culture. 

One  discussion  of  racial  mental  differences  which  had  great 
popularity  in  its  day  is  typified  in  the  writing  of  Gobineau  (44), 
who  held  to  the  absolute  inequality  of  races  and  believed  the  cul- 
tural progress  of  the  world  was  doomed  through  the  incursions  of 
the  inferior  races  upon  the  superior,  ending  in  the  final  inundation 
of  the  latter  by  the  former.  He  looked  for  the  total  destruction 
of  the  entire  human  race  in  ten  to  fourteen  thousand  years.  After 
Gobineau  followed  a  long  train  of  writers  who  maintained  that  the 
world's  population  was  segregatable  into  two  or  three  races,  with 
the  white  race  at  the  top  and  the  colored  races  at  the  bottom. 
Gobineau 's  theories  may  be  truly  termed  pre-scientific. 

The  advancement  of  modern  biology,  anthropology  and  sociol- 
ogy has  led  to  two  trends  in  the  discussion  of  these  matters.  The 
one  point  of  view  may  be  called,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  the 
socio-anthropological,  the  other  the  psycho-biological. 

i.  The  Socio-anthropological  Standpoint.  Ward  (127,  128), 
Boas  (9),  Lowie  (65,  66),  Thomas  (115,  116),  and  Park  (79)  may 
be  taken  as  representative  of  the  American  adherents  to  this  point 
of  view.  Ward  was  particularly  opposed  to  the  findings  of  Galton, 
and  just  before  his  death  he  made  a  last  masterly  thrust  at  the 
problem  of  race  and  heredity  versus  environment  and  culture 
(128).  In  this  paper  he  maintained  the  view  that  so  far  as  native 
ability  is  concerned,  barring  about  one  per  cent  of  defectives  and 
one  per  cent  of  exceptional  geniuses,  all  mankind  is  equal  and 
hence  the  important  matter  for  cultural  progress  is,  and  always 
has  been,  environment  and  opportunity. 

Boas  is  convinced  that  the  mental  differences  between  races 
are  small,  and  that  the  overlapping  in  abilities  is  so  great  as  to 
make  any  comment  on  extensive  racial  differences  unwarranted. 

[85] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups  ' 

He  places  his  emphasis  on  cultural  dissemination  and  the  factor 
of  time  in  cultural  progress.  Lowie,  while  possibly  admitting 
some  slight  differences  in  the  average  mentality  of  races,  sees  in 
cultural  borrowing  the  greatest  factor  in  social  advancement. 

Thomas  and  Park,  while  admitting  the  place  of  the  exceptional 
individual  in  invention  and  the  development  of  techniques,  are 
interested  more  particularly  in  the  social  attitudes  and  cultural 
products  of  races.  The  "run  of  attention"  plus  cultural  oppor- 
tunity are  the  important  features.  At  least  so  far  as  the  negro 
as  compared  with  the  white  race  is  concerned  they  do  not  believe 
any  very  marked  differences  in  mental  abilities  exist,  nor  would 
they  likely  admit  much  difference  in  native  endowment  between 
the  present-day  European  peasants  and  primitive  man,  or  between 
the  social  levels  of  modern  society  generally.  Cultural  oppor- 
tunities rather  than  innate  differences  make  for  the  principal  dif- 
ferences in  the  levels  of  society  or  in  race  groups." 

ii.  The  Psycho-hiological  Point  of  View.  The  writings  of  Gal- 
ton  (42),  Woodworth  (137),  Thorndike  (120),  and  of  the  eugenists 
like  Davenport  (26)  illustrate  this  viewpoint.  Pearson  (78)  and 
his  pupils  represent  the  present  followers  of  Galton  in  Great 
Britain. 

Galton 's  writings  on  mental  differences  are  well-known.  While 
not  believing  in  any  such  rigid  differences  between  groups  as  did 
Gobineau,  he  maintained  that  the  average  intelligence  of  races 
differed.  Moreover,  very  important  was  the  fact  that  the  variabil- 
ity of  races  differed,  hence  those  groups  that  possessed  the  wider 
dispersion  had  the  advantage  in  progress  over  another  race  of  even 
like  average  capacity  but  of  less  variability. 

Woodworth  has  pointed  out  that  so  far  as  the  sensory-motor 
processes  are  involved  the  various  races  he  examined  seem  to  be 
much  the  same.  He  holds  that  what  differences  there  are  lie  in 
the  field  of  the  higher  thought  processes,  but  that  these  differ  only 
in  relative  terms  and  in  varying  degrees  of  magnitude.  Thorndike 
contends  that  while  differences  in  average  intelligence  may  exist 
between  races,  the  amount  of  variability  within  any  group  far 
out-reaches  the  differences  in  the  averages  between  races  as  such. 


"' Spiller  (100),  who  represents  these  views  abroad,  writes:  "An  impartial  investi- 
gator would  be  inclined  to  look  upon  the  various  important  peoples  of  the  world  as,  to 
all  intents  and  purposes,  essentially  equals  in  intellect,  enterprise,  morality,  and  physique." 
Ratzel  (87,  p.  18-19)  holds  that  the  differences  in  races  are  due  to  "ethnography  and 
civilization"  and  that  "the  study  of  comparative  ethnology  in  recent  years  has  tended 
to  diminish  the  weight  of  traditionally  accepted  views  of  anthropologists  as  to  race  dis- 
tinctions."    Yet  the  facts   of   individual   differences   and   overlapping  can   not  be   ignored, 

[86] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

Where  differences  appear  he  too  believes  them  to  be  in  the  field  of 
the  "higher"  mental  traits.  Culture,  for  Thorndike,  must  be  the 
output  of  the  superior  individuals  in  a  particular  group.  He 
further  makes  the  point  that  not  only  variability  and  central  ten- 
dency are  important  in  racial  advancement,  but  also  the  sheer  size 
of  any  given  racial  group,  because  large  numbers  increase  markedly 
the  chances  for  the  production  of  gifted  persons.  * 

These  two  standpoints  have  led  at  times  to  considerable  con- 
troversy in  scientific  literature.  The  extremists  in  the  first  school 
can  see  little  or  nothing  in  racial  differences,  some  of  them  even 
ignore  individual  differences  within  races.  The  more  moderate  of 
them  have  developed  their  technique  for  the  study  of  culture  and 
have  usually  held  that  by  and  large  the  cultural  forces  outweigh 
any  other.  They  assume,  then,  that  environment  is  much  the  most 
important  force  in  human  progress.  The  more  extreme  of  the 
eugenists,  on  the  other  side,  have  denied  any  place  to  environ- 
mental forces  and  have  written  all  human  ills  and  wells  in  terms 
of  hereditary  factors, — physical,  mental  and  moral.  (Cf:  123, 
ch.  17.)  The  psychologists,  however,  along  with  the  more  con- 
servative biologists,  have  had  a  place  for  the  environmental  aspects 
of  progress,  but  have  emphasized  the  mental  and  physical  differ- 
ences as  arising  principally  in  heredity'.  On  the  Avhole,  however, 
they  too  have  ignored  the  factors  of  cultural  differences. 

B.  An  Interpretation  of  Racial  Differences  and  Culture. 

Whatever  controversy  has  occurred  between  the  two  points  of 
view  outlined  above  has  arisen  largely  from  a  misconception  of  the 
relation  of  one  set  of  factors  in  the  situation  to  the  other.  One 
may  for  brevity  say  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  heredity :  Biologi- 
cal, v/hich  carries  the  inherent  capacities  of  the  individuals  from 
one  generation  to  another  (the  laws  of  this  inheritance  are  modi- 
fiable only  in  terms  of  the  biological  factors)  ;  Sociological,  which 
is  synonymous  with  the  cultural  products  of  the  past  that  are 
carried  from  one  generation  to  the  next  in  education,  techniques 
of  food-getting,  arts  and  science,  and  social  organizations  gener- 
ally. The  problem,  then,  of  this  chapter  becomes  one  of  harmoniz- 
ing these  two  forces  into  a  consistent  scheme.  The  writer  will  put 
his  interpretation  forward  under  three  phases:  (i)  the  facts  of 
mental  endowment  in  races  and  individuals;  (ii)  the  cultural  or 
social  heredity  of  groups;  (iii)  the  present  nexus  between  mental 
endowment  and  culture. 

[87] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

i.  The  Distribution  of  Mental  Ahilities.  The  studies  directed 
toward  facts  about  the  mental  abilities  of  the  negro,  the  Oriental, 
the  North  American  Indian,  the  immigrant  groups  in  the  United 
States  and  the  results  of  the  writer's  own  investigation  all  go  to 
show  that  the  abilities  measured  reveal  differences  both  in  the 
central  tendencies  and  in  the  dispersion.  As  Thorndike  points  out, 
however  (120,  p.  234)  : 

There  is  much  overlapping  and  the  differences  in  original  nature  within 
the  same  race  are,  except  in  extreme  cases,  many  times  as  great  as  the 
differences  between  races  as  wholes. 

We  cannot  speak  of  superior  or  inferior  races.  We  must  think 
of  them  as  groups  all  possessing  individuals  running  from  what 
we  term  feeble-minded  to  gifted  if  not  geniuses.  But  the  relative 
percentages  of  these  and  the  variability  around  a  given  average 
may  differ  considerably.  Moreover,  facts  of  size  of  a  given  popu- 
lation, of  inbreeding  and  outbreeding  and  especially  of  selective 
breeding  among  the  better  strains  are  important. 

It  follows  from  this  that,  on  the  whole,  the  chief  matter  of 
mental  differences  is  that  of  relative  amounts  of  differences  within 
the  races  themselves,  and  second,  the  possible  effects  of  inter-mix- 
ture with  other  races  of  lower  central  tendency  and  less  dispersion 
depends  upon  whether  the  superiors  of  both  undergo  miscegenation, 
or  the  mass  of  the  inferiors  swamps  out  the  best  of  the  higher  aver- 
age group. 

In  terms  of  race  progress  the  existence  of  individuals  of  above 
average  or  superior  ability  is  the  first  essential  to  inventions  and 
creations  that  make  for  advancement.  The  capacity  for  concep- 
tual thinking  is  the  core  to  improvement  in  the  arts  and  sciences. 
Now  there  is  considerable  evidence  that  superiority  of  general 
native  intelligence  is  measured  in  terms  of  the  capacity  for  the 
"long-shot"  use  of  free  imagery,  abstract  symbols,  seeing  of  remote 
meanings  and  relations  in  natural  and  social  phenomena.  In  fact 
there  seem  to  be  actual  levels  of  development  of  thinking  ability 
which  are  uninfluenced  by  the  state  of  environment  (46,  102). 
True  enough,  "accident"  and  attitude  play  a  role,  but  it  is  idle  to 
deny  the  tremendously  important  place  that  superior  individuals 
have  served  in  mechanical  inventions,  in  social  inventions, — insti- 
tutions, religious,  economic  and  political ;  in  artistic  creation, — 
myth,  literature,  the  fine  arts;  and  lastl}'',  in  science,  objective 
methodology  and  standpoint.  In  brief  it  may  be  stated  that 
progress  rests  firmly  upon  individual  mental  endowment. 

[88] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

ii.  The  Distrihution  and  Importance  of  Culture.  The  particu- 
lar level  of  culture  to  which  a  group  has  attained  may  be  due  either 
to  the  progress  of  the  group  itself,  which  means  a  peculiar  blending 
of  superior  individuals  and  crises  '°  in  development  or  to  cultural 
borrowing.  Just  as  at  present  in  the  study  of  mental  differences, 
it  is  often  perplexing  to  attempt  to  segregate  the  factors  of  heredity 
from  those  of  environment,  so  in  ethnology  the  amount  of  borrowing 
as  against  the  amount  of  originality  in  a  given  culture  is  extremely 
hard  to  determine.  Moreover,  there  is  scarcely  a  case  extant  of 
pure  borrowing.  The  recipients  of  outside  cultural  favors  usually 
alter  the  details,  adding  or  subtracting  therefrom  to  suit  their  own 
needs.  Sometimes  they  improve  considerably  upon  the  device,  be 
it  social  or  mechanical.  The  extent  of  the  improvements  again 
will  depend  upon  the  existence  of  individuals  who  are  able  to  see 
in  the  borrowed  products  cues  to  further  extension  of  their  useful- 
ness. Thus  has  technique  and  attitude  toward  improving  inven- 
tions and  creations  arisen,  and  the  progress  of  a  group  may  be  said 
to  depend  upon  the  presence  of  above  average  ability  in  the  group 
as  well  as  to  the  mere  fact  of  borrowing. 

Therefore,  social  heredity  of  a  given  race  of  either  superior  or 
inferior  average  ability  may  include  a  great  deal  that  is  exotic  in 
origin.  Recent  researches  have  shown  that  the  Greeks,  for  ex- 
ample, who  stand  without  peers  both  in  intelligence  and  cultural 
contributions  of  their  own,  were  far  greater  debtors  to  more  ancient 
cultures  than  older  scholars  ever  dreamed.  On  the  other  hand 
isolated  races  like  the  Central  and  South  American  Indians  de- 
veloped interesting  cultures  of  their  own.  Their  art  and  tech- 
nique was  as  distinctive  as  it  was  original.  The  Melanesians  and 
Polynesians  also  developed  independent  cultural  areas.  The 
Japanese,  a  people  of  apparently  high  average  intelligence,  have 
long  been  extensive  borrowers,  usually  improving,  adapting  and 
using  these  contributions  for  their  own  benefit. 

In  science  and  mechanical  technique  the  processes  are  very 
noticeable.  Man  in  his  effort  to  control  and  combat  natural  forces 
around  him  has  been  both  inventor  and  borrower.  The  state  of 
the  technique  and  the  social  attitude  of  the  group  must  go  together 
to  produce  advancement.  Take  the  case  of  modern  science.  Its 
present  freedom  and  importance  are  young.     For  centuries  it  lay 


'"Cf:  Thomas  (115)  on  crises.  The  term  "crisis"  is  used  in  the  broad  sense  of  any 
critical  situation  demanding  attention  snd  solution.  They  are  the  new  features  of 
environment  to  which  the  individual  adjusts,  and  his  measure  of  success  is  largely  in 
terms  of  his  native  capacity  operating  through  the  cultural  tools  that  make  up  the  con- 
tents of  "mind." 

[89] 


;  Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

dormant  and  undeveloped  under  the  weighty  hand  of  creed  and 
superstition.  So  in  primitive  groups,  the  power  of  taboo  and  ritual 
in  preventing  the  curiosity  of  the  individual  from  penetrating  the 
mysteries  of  natural  or  social  phenomena  were  great  deterrents  to 
the  development  of  objective  techniques  and  attitudes.  At  best 
the  able  individual's  mental  development  acquired  the  content 
laid  down  by  the  group  attitudes.  He  put  his  capacities  to  work 
w^here  the  group  permitted.  As  some  one  has  said,  although  a 
Newton  could  hardly  contribute  a  system  of  physics  if  born  a 
Hottentot,  he  nevertheless  would  have  been  the  most  gifted  men- 
tality in  his  group  and  might  have  led  his  people  to  success  in 
warfare  or  other  progress  which  their  cultural  background  made 
possible.  The  particular  line  of  attention  which  the  superior  per- 
sons in  a  group  adopt  is  determined  hy  the  state  of  the  social 
heredity.  Even  to  this  day  investigation  into  social  behavior  and 
the  human  mind  has  to  combat  popular  superstition  and  ignorance. 
It  is  simply  the  modern  chapter  of  folkways  and  mores  operating 
against  objective  science. 

Without  going  to  great  length  the  writer  does  wish  to  empha- 
size the  place  that  convention,  tradition,  mores  and  subjective 
social  controls  have  played  in  the  matter  of  human  progress.  The 
history  of  science  and  of  civilization  is  replete  with  instances  of 
the  blocking  of  progress  by  the  social  attitudes  of  the  group  backed 
by  the  authority  of  priesthood,  cult  and  caste. 

Hi.  The  Present  Use  of  Heredity — Mental  and  Social.  This  is 
the  important  feature  of  the  entire  question.  Present-day  inquiries 
about  racial  progress,  racial  mixture,  democracy  and  the  future  of 
science  hinge  upon  it. 

One  must  not  forget  the  cumulative  effect  of  modern  progress, 
that  with  every  advance,  in  any  direction, — art,  science  or  social 
invention, — there  goes  additional  stimulation  to  the  rising  minds 
to  attack  and  prolong  the  process.  Herein  lies  a  curious  thing 
in  modern  developments  and  possibly  one  noteworthy  cue  to  its 
solution.  We  have  the  "set"  or  attitude  of  progression  much  more 
consciously  expressed  than  ever  before  in  history.  Never  previ- 
ously have  groups  so  large  as  the  European,  American  and  Far 
Eastern  world  moved  almost  in  unison  in  terms  of  cultural  am- 
bition. This  attitude,  this  desire  to  "get  on"  ramifies  every  avenue 
in  life.  It  may  be  that  just  now  our  interests  are  pointed  toward 
economic  exploitation  especially;  but  whether  narrowly  economic 
or  more  truly  "social,"  the  attitude  is  everywhere  about  us.     It  is 

[90] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Group& 

inescapable,  and  today  among  all  classes  practically,  and  among  the 
foremost  nations,  the  one  dishonor  is  not  to  be  "going  somewhere." 

Modern  means  of  communication  have  enhanced  tremendously 
the  possibilities  of  inter-stimulation  among  minds.  We  consciously 
create  "crises"  and  stimulation  in  our  preparation  for  life  that 
simulate  those  in  actual  later  accomplishment.  Coupled  with  these 
facts  is  the  present  expansion  of  numbers  of  the  population,  which 
as  we  have  seen  increases  the  probabilities  for  the  production  of 
gifted  individuals.  It  is  not  known  whether  the  relative  number 
of  gifted  individuals  and  particularly  geniuses  is  greater  or  less 
today  than  in  Plato's  and  Aristotle's  time.  Galton  thought  much 
less.  It  does  not,  perhaps,  matter.  The  fact  of  numbers,  modem 
science  and  communication  in  cultures  probably  offsets  the  dif- 
ferences imagined  by  Galton  if  they  exist.  It  does  concern  us, 
does  it  not,  whether  the  average  intelligence  of  our  race  is  de- 
creasing and  the  range  of  variability  growing  narrower.  Are  we 
headed  for  a  definite,  unpreventable  regression  to  the  mediocre  ? 
A  hypothetical  case  will  put  the  problem  before  us : 

Suppose  that  all  class  A  chemists,  men  of  superior  and  above 
average  native  ability,  should  be  wiped  out  at  one  stroke ;  the  class 
B  men  would  still  be  capable  of  continuing  important  research 
after  some  fashion.  With  the  present  technique  at  hand,  worthy 
discoveries  and  valuable  applications  would  still  be  made.  But 
does  anyone  doubt  that  ultimately  chemical  progress  would  be 
slowed  down  so  as  to  affect  all  scientific  progress  related  to  it,  as 
well  as  its  own,  unless  new  men  of  class  A  ability  came  into  the 
field? 

Another  point :  Cultural  borrowing  is  going  on  apace  now 
more  than  ever.  Little  does  the  man  in  the  street  realize  the  place 
that  superior  abilities  have  had  in  making  his  comforts  and  con- 
veniences, and  enlarging  his  grip  on  the  universe.  However,  the 
capacity  to  use  and  derive  benefit  from  any  given  invention  or  idea 
is  a  vastly  different  thing  from  the  initiation  of  the  idea  or  the  con- 
summation of  the  invention.  For  instance,  a  moron  may  be  able 
to  read  a  thermometer  with  sufficient  intelligence  to  enable  him  to 
do  simple  tasks  such  as  opening  or  closing  the  windows  of  an  office 
or  school  building.  It  is  a  different  matter,  first,  to  have  the 
capacity  for  the  education  which  enables  one  to  master  the  laws 
of  physics  and  chemistry  relating  to  the  expansion  of  mercury  in 
the  presence  of  heat.  Moreover,  to  be  the  first  individual  to  work 
out  the  laws  of  the  expansion  of  mercurv  is  even  more  unusual 

[91] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

both  in  terms  of  opportunity  and  native  capacity  well  trained. 
Again  a  man  of  less  than  average  intelligence  may  successfully 
manipulate  a  truck  over  the  ordinary  traffic  routes  of  a  city,  but 
may  not  be  able  to  repair  the  engine  of  the  truck  in  case  of  trouble. 
Neither  may  the  repairman  be  able  to  think  up  new  devices  for  gas 
engines  or  more  remotely  to  figure  out  the  relation  between  the 
expansion  of  certain  volatile  substances  and  the  application  of  the 
phenomenon  of  gas  expansion  to  motive  power. 

Hence,  though  modern  society  has  well  begun  to  eliminate  the 
most  serious  handicaps  to  progress  in  the  way  of  taboo  and  creed 
on  the  one  hand,  and  has  under  science  developed  communication 
and  objective  attitude,  the  essential  fact  remains  that  the  con- 
tinued initiation  of  progress  depends  upon  the  use  of  and  gradual 
accretion  to  this  social  heredity  by  those  of  above  average  ability, 
who  breeding  their  kind  in  a  selective  fashion  will  lay  the  biological 
chances  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  the  very  gifted  individuals  in 
each  generation  who  will  lead  this  progress  most  significantly  for- 
ward. Any  racial  mixture  that  will  hinder  this,  or  affect  it  nega- 
tively, by  so  much  is  destructive  of  the  best  possibilities  of  the  best 
strains  of  ability  wherever  found. 

iv.  Summary.  In  conclusion  it  may  be  re-stated  that  the  in- 
telligence of  groups  and  races  is  important,  and  any  change  in  the 
percentage  of  high  average  intelligence  and  a  wide  variability 
giving  superior  members  in  one  group  or  race  through  mixture 
with  less  intelligent  (on  the  average)  and  less  variable  stocks  will 
slow  down  the  cultural  advancement  possible  for  the  given  group. 

Second  the  differences  in  cultural  opportunities  in  various 
classes  of  any  population,  or  races,  are  rapidly  disappearing  through 
the  application  of  modern  science  to  the  spread  of  culture.  The 
most  consequential  aspect  of  the  culture  is  the  degree  of  scientific 
techinque  and  the  state  of  the  arts  developed  in  connection  with  the 
social  attitudes  toward  the  use  of  these  possessions. 

Third,  the  future  lies  with  the  preservation  of  the  best  average 
intelligence  in  the  entire  population  possible,  coupled  with  the 
widest  varibility  toward  the  superior  deviates. 

Finally,  an  ethical  implication  of  all  this  must  not  be  over- 
looked. It  is  precisely  here  that  the  features  of  culture  and  the 
attitudes  or  social  values  are  of  primary  importance.  Whether  the 
progress  of  Western  civilization  is  to  go  forward  in  terms  of  a  more 
just  and  ethical  social  organization,  giving  place  to  well-integrated 

[92] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

personality  and  high  culture,  or  whether  it  is  to  go  to  the  extreme 
in  machine  technique  and  increasing  routinized  industrialism  with- 
out any  general  social  benefits  to  the  masses,  all  the  while  breeding 
nationalistic  jealousies  that  lead  to  war  and  inventions  of  ever 
newer  and  more  ghastly  methods  of  warfare,  depends  upon  the  edu- 
cation and  the  social  ethics  which  the  intellectual  leaders  of  society 
acquire.  Our  modern  world  must  accept  the  best  in  culture,  no 
matter  its  exotic  origin ;  we  must  continue  our  emphasis  upon  the 
dispelling  of  prejudices.  And  before  all  else  equal  opportunities 
must  be  accorded  every  child  and  adult  for  the  accomplishment 
of  the  best  his  capacities  allow.  It  is  barely  possible,  to  say  the 
least,  that  the  integration  of  personality  which  this  implies  may  re- 
volve around  considerably  different  values  than  those  now  insisted 
upon. 

In  the  groups  whose  mentality  has  been  studied,  the  range  of 
ability  in  all  runs  from  high  to  low.  Although  some  groups  de- 
cidedly outstripped  others  on  the  average  and  in  variability  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  less  fortunate  groups  are  not  capable  of  the  use 
of  culture  or  that  their  groups  do  not  contain  persons  who  are 
capable  of  superior  attainment.  Society  must  provide  for  the  utili- 
zation of  the  best  abilities  from  all  races  and  classes  as  well  as  the 
use  of  the  corresponding  cultures.  Therefore,  the  problem  of  racial 
difference  especially  so  far  as  it  touches  the  European  groups,  and 
presumably  the  Orientals  too,  is  not  an  "all  or  none"  principle, 
but  one  of  relativity  and  proportion.  Let  our  segregation  be  along 
the  lines  of  ability,  never  of  race  as  such,  and  with  the  proper  op- 
portunities for  all,  especially  for  those  capable  of  leadership,  the 
future  of  culture  itself  is  secured. 


[§§] 


CHAPTER  VI.  GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND 
CONCLUSIONS 

A.  The  Purpose  of  This  Study  was:  (1)  to  investigate  tlie 
general  intelligence  of  children  of  certain  immigrant  stocks  to  dis- 
cover, (a)  whether  the  alleged  language  handicap  in  their  school 
progress  existed  in  fact  or  not;  or  (b)  whether  the  difficulty  with 
their  school  attainment  were  due  to  deeper  lying  causes  in  their 
native  mental  endowment;  (2)  at  the  same  time  to  secure  facts  on 
the  mental  differences  in  the  racial  stocks  studied.  The  assumption 
was  made  that  general  intelligence  is  measureable,  and  that  it  is  to 
a  large  extent  inherited,  and  is  not  greatly  altered  by  the  adventi- 
tious character  of  a  particular  environment ;  that  is  to  say,  not 
altered  in  form  and  potentiality,  only  in  content. 

B.  The  Methods  of  Approach  consisted  in:  (1)  the  use  of 
several  outside  measures  of  ability  of  the  groups  in  question:  (a) 
teachers'  estimates  of  (i)  general  intelligence  and  (ii)  school  work; 
(b)  grade  location;  (c)  parents'  occupational  levels:  (2)  the  giving 
of  two  tj'pes  of  psychological  tests  of  general  intelligence:  (a)  a 
verbal  test,  army  alpha,  and  (b)  a  non-verbal  test,  army  beta. 

It  is  believed  that  the  comparison  of  the  results  of  these  two 
tests,  first  through  their  measures  of  averages,  dispersion  and  over- 
lapping, and  second,  by  means  of  correlation  methods  would  throw 
light  on  the  question  not  only  of  the  native  intelligence  of  the 
children  tested  but  also  answer  specifically  the  question  of  "lan- 
guage handicap"  versus  native  endowment  as  the  most  important 
cause  of  school  retardation.  The  tests  would  also  serve  to  throw 
light  on  the  query  concerning  mental  differences  in  these  racial 
groups. 

(3)  Rather  than  selection  of  children  by  grade,  a  common 
chronological  age  of  twelve  years  was  taken,  in  choosing  the  sample. 

(4)  The  anthropological  backgrounds  of  the  racial  stocks  were 
briefly  reviewed  for  purposes  of  partial  interpretation. 

C.  The  Data  as  collected  and  subjected  to  statistical  treatment 
disclosed  the  following  facts: 

(1)  Extensive  retardation  of  the  Latins  as  compared  to  the 
Americans, 

[94] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

(2)  The  teachers'  estimates  of  school  work  indicated  that  in 
their  judgment  the  Latins  do  considerably  poorer,  for  their  grades, 
than  the  non-Latins.  The  latter  exceed  the  former,  in  terms  of 
mean  rating,  by  an  amount  equal  to  nearly  one-seventh  of  the  range 
of  the  scale  upon  which  the  ratings  were  made. 

(3)  The  teachers'  estimates  of  general  intelligence  showed  that 
the  non-Latin  C.  T.  exceeds  that  of  the  Latins  also  by  one-seventh 
of  the  range  of  the  rating-scale.  Both  ratings  of  school  work  and  of 
intelligence  indicate  that  the  Americans  are  more  variable,  in  the 
judgment  of  their  teachers,  than  the  Latins.  None  of  the  latter 
reach  the  classification  ' '  Very  Superior ' '  on  either  scale :  school 
work  or  intelligence,  while  the  percentage  of  Latins  labeled  "Very 
Inferior"  greatly  exceeds  that  of  the  non-Latins  in  this  category, 
for  either  scale. 

(4)  Grade  location  indicated  that  on  the  average  the  Americans 
excel  the  Latins  by  nearly  two  grades.  If  the  present  grading  is 
anywhere  nearly  just  and  100  I.  Q.  can  be  taken  as  the  average  for 
the  Americans  in  terms  of  present  grade  status,  the  Latins  are  five- 
sixths  of  this  amount  and  might  be  represented  by  an  average  I.  Q. 
of  83. 

(5)  The  economic  status  of  the  parents  of  the  children  shows 
that  there  is  a  rough  relation  between  economic  class  and  the  mean 
intelligence  of  the  children  of  these  classes.  While  there  are  bright, 
median  and  dull  intelligence  in  each  classification,  all  abilities 
from  high  to  low  exist  in  each  class,  but  in  varying  degrees  of  fre- 
quency. 

(6)  The  psychological  tests  results  show : 

a.  That  very  wide  differences  exist  both  in  C.  T.  and  in  dis- 
persion between  the  Americans  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Latins  on 
the  other.  The  overlapping,  corrected  in  terms  of  the  reliability  of 
the  tests  disclosed  the  following : 

i.  For  the  Alpha,  the  upper  50  per  cent  of  the  Latins  scarcely 
exceeded  the  lower  quartile  of  the  Americans,  while  only  from  5 
to  7  per  cent  of  the  Latins  exceed  the  median  of  the  Americans, 
and  but  1  to  2  per  cent  exceed  the  upper  quartile  of  the  latter. 
There  is  good  evidence  that  the  alpha  is  the  better  of  the  two  tests 
in  terms  of  its  differentiating  value,  but  if  this  be  not  admitted, 
the  beta  results,  themselves,  show  very  striking  facts  of  overlapping. 
Only  from  11  to  16  per  cent  of  the  Latins  exceed  the  median  of  the 
Americans  in  beta,  from  25  to  30  per  cent  exceed  the  lower  quar- 
tile of  the  latter,  and  but  4  to  7  per  cent  the  upper  quartile.    Since 

[95] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

the  beta  is  clearly  inadequate  to  differentiate  among  the  superior, 
average  and  low  average  in  the  American  groups,  were  the  beta 
more  difficult  the  results  would  have  been  more  nearly  like  those  in 
alpha.  As  might  be  expected  the  alpha  and  beta  combined  together 
in  one  scale  give  an  overlapping  somewhat  between  the  two  extremes 
of  alpha  and  beta  alone. 

This  evidence  constitutes  proof  of  the  decided  inferiority,  on 
the  average,  of  the  Latin  stocks  to  the  American  group  studied. 
It  likewise  has  its  relation  to  the  matter  of  racial  differences  in 
mentality. 

b.  The  correlational  materials  present  further  answer  to  the 
problems  of  the  study : 

i.  The  verbal  test — alpha,  proves  a  better  measure  of  the  ability 
of  the  Latin  groups  than  the  beta,  which  shows : 

ii.  That  the  alleged  language  handicap  does  not  exist  to  any- 
thing like  the  extent  usually  supposed.  While  in  the  case  of  the 
Spanish-Mexicans  the  beta  seemed  to  be  about  as  adequate  for 
diagnosis  as  alpha,  it  was  not  markedly .  better,  and  the  best  evi- 
dence from  an  analysis  of  the  test  results  would  indicate  that  had 
another  verbal  test  more  commensurate  with  the  general  level  of 
intelligence  of  this  group  been  employed  it  would  have  served 
better  to  measure  educability  and  for  use  in  grading  than  a  non- 
verbal. 

It  is  not  denied  that  language  difficulties  play  no  part  whatever 
in  the  problem  of  the  immigrant's  child,  but  it  is  a  minimal  matter 
compared  to  that  of  native  endowment.  The  correlation  of  alpha 
against  grade  location  with  the  Italian  12  year-olds  who  were  bom 
in  Italy  was  five  points  higher  (r  .76)  than  the  beta  against  grade 
(r  .71).  "While  the  beta  compared  more  favorably  with  alpha  in 
this  case  than  in  the  general  sample,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  alpha 
is  still  better  as  measured  by  the  best  single  outside  criterion  of 
educability  (and  thus  of  intelligence)   that  we  have. 

Therefore,  the  conclusion  is  put  forth  than  the  language  handi- 
cap of  the  children  in  the  public  schools  is  not  the  cause  of  the  diffi- 
culty with  the  school  materials.  Retardation  is  in  terms  of  native 
capacity. 

iii.  The  results  of  the  tests,  both  alpha  and  beta,  when  cor- 
related with  the  occupational  status  of  the  parents,  show  that  some 
slight  correlation  exists  between  the  mental  standing  of  the  pupils 
in  these  tests  and  the  economic  success  of  the  parents  as  measured 
by  the  occupational  classifications  used.     The  correlations,  how- 

[96] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

ever,  are  not  high  enough  to  warrant  conclusions  concerning  the 
probability  of  a  given  intelligence  falling  in  a  particular  occupa- 
tional group. 

D.  The  significance  of  these  findings  for  the  educational-ad- 
ministrative program  include  briefly  the  following  principles: 

(1)  Alteration  in  the  educational  point  of  view  recognizing  the 
fundamental  need  for  differential  education  for  the  various  levels 
of  capacity  in  school  population.  The  more  specific  changes  will 
involve : 

a.  Alteration  in  administrative  and  supervisional  organization 
looking  to : 

i.  A  plan  for  re-grading  school  populations  in  terms  of  mental 
age  rather  than  chronological. 

ii.  Grade  organization  providing  for  at  least  three  levels  of 
school  work — for  the  superior,  for  the  average  and  for  the  back- 
ward. In  addition,  increased  provision  will  have  to  be  made  for 
the  feeble-minded,  of  whom  such  populations  contain  considerable 
numbers. 

iii.  The  wide,  but  proper  use  of  pedagogical  tests  and  measure- 
ments for  periodical  checking  up  on  the  efficacy  of  the  educational 
product. 

iv.  These  last  three  important  points  necessitate  the  establish- 
ment of  a  research  bureau,  with  a  director  trained  in  administering 
and  interpreting  psychological  and  pedagogical  tests  for  school  uses. 

b.  Changes  in  the  curriculum  will  be  necessary. 

i.  The  principles  of  curriculum  making  must  be  clearly  under- 
stood, i.e.,  the  objectives  of  education  must  be  defined. 

ii.  Differential  materials  and  methods  must  be  made  a  part  of 
the  course  of  study  to  fit  the  levels  of  capacity  of  the  pupils,  and 
their  future  requirements  in  adult  society. 

c.  Teaching  methods  need  serious  revamping.  The  project 
method  of  education  will  find  an  excellent  place  in  this  scheme. 
Contacts  with  the  outside  industries  and  occupations  will  need  to 
be  made. 

d.  If  immigration  continues  to  give  the  public  schools  new- 
comers from  abroad,  special  provision  must  be  made  to  care  for  the 
immediately  arrived  foreign-born  children  and  adults  in  the  matter 
of  acquainting  them  with  the  tools  of  English.  When  they  have 
acquired  sufficient  English  they  may  be  shifted  to  such  grades  in 
the  regular  school  as  their  capacities  demand. 

[97] 


Mental  Differences  in  Certain  Immigrant  Groups 

e.  The  public  conscience  and  public  co-operation  must  be  en- 
listed to  make  this  school  policy  go.  Neighborhoods  must  be  re- 
vived and  the  school  must  become  the  center  of  the  social  life  of  the 
families  who  group  themselves  around  it. 

E.  The  findings  of  the  thesis  are  also  important  for  the  prob- 
lem of  immigration  and  race  mixture.  It  is  not  maintained  here 
that  the  intelligence  uncovered  in  these  groups  is  typical  of  the 
entire  racial  groups  from  which  the  sample  sprang,  but  it  is  held 
likely  that  it  represents  very  well  the  common  run  of  immigrants 
from  these  countries  who  do  actually  settle  in  the  United  States. 
Other  studies  corroborate  the  findings  of  this  investigation  and  lend 
credence  to  this  belief.  Therefore,  the  importance  of  the  matter 
for  immigration  and  national  future. 

"While  the  European  races  are  probably  all  of  near  kind,  the 
South  Europeans  have  considerable  negroid  strains  in  the  masses 
of  the  people  and  this  fact  may,  in  part,  account  for  the  divergence 
from  the  intelligence  of  the  North  Europeans'  descendents.  On 
the  whole,  however,  the  theoretical  as  well  as  practical  problem  of 
the  European  in  this  country  is  one  of  relative  degree  of  native 
intelligence  in  the  groups  as  compared  to  that  of  the  older  American 
stock.  And  the  question  of  racial  differences  and  the  country's 
welfare  is  one  of  such  public  policy  as  will  give  the  future  the  best 
of  all  the  strains  present  and  prevent  such  amalgamation  of  in- 
ferior with  average  and  superior  as  will  lessen  the  average  in- 
telligence of  the  nation  and  narrow  the  dispersion  of  abilities 
toward  the  production  of  gifted  individuals. 

Certain  theoretical  features  of  race  differences  and  cultural 
progress  were  made.  These  are  necessary  implications  for  the  wider 
meaning  of  this  investigation. 


[98  J 


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